Thank you for even taking the time to browse it @Blackraven. It started out as just a way of experimenting with and demonstrating the gaming method of using card flips and die rolls. But it's hard for me not to do something that I care about anything but full-on. So then it became as much about the story-telling and roleplaying for me as using card flips and dice.
The journaling takes a lot of time, is one huge downside to it. I mean, it's boilerplate writing--I'm just pounding it out. But still, the game moves at a glacial pace this way.
It definitely increases the feeling of investment with the story and events as they unfold. You get into the heads of the various characters. There is a basic structure and path the that game has to follow, of course. But even within that you're not quite sure where things will lead. E.g., party members will do unexpected things. Die rolls or card flips lead to unexpected (and in some cases unhoped for) results. There's even room for development of subplots and intrigue within the party, etc. So it really is a transformed experience of playing the game for me.
Anyway, glad you appreciate the method. It has really been the most immersive experience I have ever had playing this game (and that's saying a lot). :-)
I understand that the journalling takes so much time, but I think it's a great creative exercise to translate the cards flipping and dice rolling into a story. Have just read the summary in the link you sent me. Playing this way must be very immersive indeed (losing gear if party members leave for example). My last playthrough (just completed BG1) with the Cleric/Thief you've already met, suffered because I sped him to the point where he had died in a previous no-reload run, so as to continue his journal on the formus here. Anyway I'll keep track of your travels as decided by the Fates!
Part I - A Return Visit to the Silvershield Estate
[Game mechanics-wise I had to take the entire party on this burgling and pickpocketing spree by Coran and Eldoth. I just parked the other four party members in the corner of the map and pretended that they're back at the docks map enjoying the ship or sleeping. Ditto for parking them inside the Silvershield mansion. In terms of the narrative only Coran and Eldoth were on this little side adventure.]
The following story was recounted to me the following morn by Eldoth and Coran. During our breakfast at Jopalin's Tavern the party gathered round and listened intently to the tale, masterfully spun by Eldoth to start:
Eldoth related that when he and Coran had formulated their plan the previous day, Eldoth proposed that the two of them return to the Silvershield estate at night for Coran to burglarize it. He added that he had never rummaged through any of the belongings there during the one visit he had made there late at night when Skie had snuck him in, but surely there must be quite a stash of jewelry, gold, and other treasure. Coran agreed that it seemed target worthy of the risk.
Before venturing out into the night, Coran asked Imoen if he could carry our gem bag, which of course Imoen handed to him. (It happened to be empty at that point.)
The duo made their way back to the estate and loitered a few moments across the street from the entrance gate, as if carrying on a casual conversation. Coran handed to Eldoth all of the items in his pack that he could in order to make room for whatever treasure he may find.
With no one else on the street in sight, Coran then slipped into the shadows and passed through the open gate onto the grounds. Naturally, he took great caution to remain hidden. Just ahead Coran spied the same guard who had chased after us earlier in the afternoon. He was stationed right at the mansion’s front door. Coran returned back to Eldoth to report as much, since a bit of magic would evidently be needed to gain access into the building.
Eldoth responded that he knew just what to do. With Coran standing by the entrance but still hidden in the shadows, Eldoth approached the front door to the estate, making sure to keep his hood well over his face. In a relaxed manner Eldoth strolled up the guard, softly singing a ballad of a maid losing her love to the sea. The guard sternly bade him to halt, and demanded that Eldoth pull back his hood and identify himself. Eldoth compliantly stopped, and calmly and reassuringly called out that he posed no threat. He raised both his hands and rotated them slowly, to demonstrate he held no weapons. He asked if he may approach; but at the same time he slowly advanced while appearing to fumble somewhat at untying a drawstring to his hood.
The bard explained that he was able to utter an incantation under his breath as if singing softly, and to also subtly prestidigitate a Charm spell as he made his approach; and by the time he fully removed his hood to reveal his face, the guard had become enchanted to do his bidding.
Bravo! I exclaimed, adding that I was most impressed at Eldoth’s ability to use sleight of hand to spellcast undetected!
[In reality Eldoth used the nymph cloak. He has not shared with the party that he has discovered that the cloak is imbued with the power to Charm at will, simply through the wearer’s intent.]
Eldoth continued that he was cognizant that the guard would remember their encounter once the enchantment had ended. So he advised the guard that this afternoon from the street he had happened to witness a band of six ne’er-do-wells high-tailing it out of the gate in flight. He then advised the guard that he had just spotted a figure that he suspected was a member of that party climbing the estate’s wall with a grappling hook and rope where it joined the city wall to the rear of the mansion. Eldoth urged the guard therefore to hurry back behind the mansion and investigate! It would be best to remain still and hidden there, with his watchful eye fixed on the wall to the estate. In the meantime, Eldoth said, he would hurry to seek out a Flaming Fist guard on patrol for assistance.
And of course with the fellow fully under Eldoth’s enchantment, it did not occur to the hapless guard to do anything but precisely what Eldoth in effect just directed him to do. Eldoth noted that of course he never identified himself. But should he be tied at some point to the burglary and brought in for questioning, this story might hopefully appear credible enough. Eldoth then told that he relocated to just outside of the entrance in order to keep an ear and eye out.
Coran took his turn to recount the next set of events. Beyond the foyer, which was empty, sadly it seemed that within the entire mansion the only room that was left unattended was a great room with a grand piano just to the left of the front door on the first floor. There the elf found some minor gems and a bit of gold. Unfortunately, all the other rooms—including all of the ones adjacent to the stairs on second floor—had people about.
Coran continued that he then opted to venture outside, having noticed a number of chests on the west side of the grounds. There, Coran reported, he found two items of value that Eldoth said will require identification by an expert: a scroll which contained what Eldoth believed were religious glyphs of some sort, and a club with a runic carving. Eldoth commented that he believed that the scroll likely provided divine protection but it was not within his ability to decipher. Similarly, the meaning to the carving on the club was unknown to him.
The two of them paused from the tale so that the elf could pull out the oaken cudgel from his pack and hand it to Faldorn. Upon inspecting it, the druidess silently shook her head that she also did not recognize what type of symbols were carved into it. However she closed her eyes momentarily and appeared to offer a silent prayer, likely in reverence for the material it was made of.
Eldoth then picked up the story again by recounting that the two of them next traveled due east and paid a visit to... the Ducal Palace! This elicited a gasp from Neera and a laugh from Imoen. Eldoth next held us in genuine suspense for a time as he described the magnificent palace, and detailed the various points of access as they scanned it visually seeking a possible way in. The bard then paused for dramatic effect, with the party on the edge of their seats in expectation of a hair-raising tale of burglary inside no less than the very seat of government for the great city-state of Baldur’s Gate…
But Eldoth then glumly admitted there appeared not the slightest chance of gaining entry there! The party groaned and chuckled. Imoen gave Eldoth a good natured shove, and then patted both Eldoth and Coran on their backs for even having considered such a bold scheme.
The bard continued that they were however far from done for the night. Eldoth knew of an impressive wizard’s tower very nearby occupied by a wizard named Ramazith. A splendid looking tower it is; and in fact it is one of the city’s more impressive features of the skyline by day, he noted. And Coran nodded in agreement.
The two of them therefore made their way through a long alley along the eastern side of the Ducal Palace, and eventually emerged onto the street again at Ramazith’s tower. This tower should hold great magical treasure, they both knew.
Eldoth then told that it had begun to rain as they traversed the alley; and that helped clear the streets so that Coran could approach the tower without anyone noticing him. Coran chimed in that he took the rain as a favorable sign from Tymora.
Coran then approached the front door to the tower and picked the lock, to disappear inside. And at this point the telling of the tale passed again to Coran.
[Does Coran have access to get to spiral stairs undetected? I.e., specifically, is Ramazith facing away from the front door engrossed in a book such that Coran may slip past him up the stairs unseen? Result = red card. Yes, Coran may advance undetected.]
Coran continued the tale, telling that when he carefully and everso slowly opened the door and peered in, he saw the wizard with his back turned at the other end of the circular room. He noted that the living quarters there were well appointed—obviously a good sign for potential treasure. It helped that the central spiral staircase in the middle of the floor offered Coran cover. So Coran slipped inside and quickly darted up the stairs.
On the next level, Coran told us, were some mustard jellies. These slow moving creatures posed little hazard to our speedy thief. Unfortunately there were no obvious storage containers for treasure on this level—just recessed shelving along the walls.
Coran ascended the stairs on that second floor to peer into the next level up. And there he spotted a number of terrifying ghasts shambling about. He noted also that on this level was a strange garden that encircled the central staircase, offering him some cover. Coran could not see all of the monsters. But between the ones he could spot visually and following the wheezing groans and shuffling of feet outside of his view, he estimated their number to be possibly around half a dozen.
There was a substantial chance that he could be spotted by at least one of the creatures once he traveled high enough onto the twisting stairs to peek up into the next floor. But Coran figured the risk was worth taking. So he stole up the stairs to gaze into the next level. There he spotted hobgoblins, and by the looks of them possibly elite warriors at that.
[While Coran is spying into the next level does he get spotted by one of the ghasts?Result = red card. Yes, Coran is spotted.Coran is therefore unstealthed because a ghast spots him.]
Then, Coran said, much to his chagrin one of the ghasts caught sight of him. Coran said that at that moment he had no choice but to quaff a potion to make him invisible.
Now that he was invisible it made sense to scout the entire tower, Coran observed.
He continued upward and noted that on the next level was another circular garden surrounding the staircase. So once again he had a bit of cover. And sure enough, about half a dozen hobgoblins roamed about there. As with the floor below, this level also contained only recessed wall shelves, and no containers.
Coran said he surveyed the room in but a glance, as he was anxious that the ghast that had spotted him would think to journey upward to investigate. And if his sighting was communicated to the hobgoblins, there was the risk that one of the hobgoblins could be a spellcaster who might make him visible again. So Coran told us that without delay he sped upward to the next level.
On the fourth floor Coran recounted that an even denser garden surrounded the staircase, obscuring his view. But through it he could hear the yips, growls, and gurgles of kobolds. Even just the memory of the sound of their clawed feet scratching on the marble floor gave him slight chills now, he said. From the looks of their armor and bows they were likely an elite detail, Coran added.
Coran said he felt it urgent to keep moving as fast as he could to try to find any treasure at all in the heavily guarded tower.
Up to the next floor Coran ran. And there he found the top of the tower, and Ramazith’s study. A locked desk concerned Coran that it may be trapped but he placed his faith in Tymora and picked the lock in a flash, nevertheless wincing as he opened the desk. To his relief it was not trapped. There Coran found a wand, a hefty sum of gold, a scroll, and an elixir of health, and four scrolls. He hastily looked through the numerous book shelves and found an impressive and rather heavy tome that was likely valuable. Also among the shelves he gathered a number of spell scrolls.
Coran felt that any moment a small army of ghasts, hobgoblins, kobolds—and perhaps even Ramazith himself—would burst up the stairs. So as quickly as he could loot the floor, he drank down the remaining potion of invisibility that he had.
Down the stairs Coran sped.
[Has Ramazith been notified of the intrusion by a ghast?Result = red card. Yes, Ramazith is aware there is an intruder in his tower.From a roleplay standpoint I feel Ramazith would use Improved Invisibility and remain on the first floor, which he does have memorized. He is visible though, of course, per the game engine.]
Unfortunately Coran now found that three monsters were stationed right at the door, barring his exit. Ramazith was then nowhere to be seen. A ghast, a kobold, and a hobgoblin stood between Coran and his escape. And the two living creatures among the trio of sentries had the look of veteran warriors.
Coran told us that he then went back up to the next level for a moment to take a moment to consider his options. He concluded that the only question at that point was whether to take any potions prior to fighting his way out. He said he didn’t wrestle with it long, and deemed it most prudent to withhold use of any potions until he was absolutely sure he needed to use them.
The elf then prepared an ice arrow and got the other six of them positioned in his quiver ready to draw. He steeled himself with a prayer to Tymora. And down he snuck, still invisible of course. Taking position at the end of the room opposite the door, Coran loosed an ice arrow at the heart of the ghast.
Naturally, given Coran's great skill with the bow, his arrow squarely hit the mark. But it did not kill the creature instantly.
Then Ramazith suddenly appeared! He sneered that given that Coran was feeling so bold as to burgle his residence then why not follow him to the top of tower? The wizard disappeared again just as instantaneously.
Coran was however distracted from Ramazith’s taunt. He was taking arrows of both poison and fire from the other two enemies at the door! And in fact Coran got quite badly injured by one of each type of arrow striking him simultaneously.
Coran related that he was next able to fire another arrow of ice at the ghast; which to his relief killed the creature—for he knew that if that ghast had reached and touched him, he would be paralyzed. And if that happened he was then sure to die.
Our thief then quickly imbibed an antidote to stop the poison from the hobgoblin’s arrow. He then killed the kobold with one arrow and the hobgoblin with two.
By the end of the battle, however, Coran was faint and nearly collapsed. He used both potions of healing that he had with him to restore himself to nearly full vigor.
Coran finished this portion of the tale by reporting that he quickly looted the slain creatures’ corpses and then stole out of the tower as fast as he could. He was hardly keen on the notion of fighting an advanced wizard with a small army of monsters!
[With this encounter Faldorn leveled-up to Druid 4. She thereby gains one extra spell slot each for level 1 and 2 spells. And she adds a proficiency in Quarterstaff.]
Meeting Eldoth across the street in the alley Coran reported the events. Eldoth examined the treasure from the burglary and was able to identify but two items: yet another wand that paralyzes ("Very nice!" I exclaimed, as Eldoth handed it to me) and a couple of arrows that cause flame damage from the kobold (Coran would use these).
There were a number of spell scrolls that Eldoth of course knew well. But four of them he had but a vague idea about, and could not be certain enough about what they were to attempt to use them.
Eldoth showed Neera and me the spell scrolls. We were pleased to find a number of useful spells among them. There was a spell to make the body appear as an indistinct blur; a spell to become invisible; a spell to project a duplicate image of the caster; and a spell to make the target temporarily blind.
The spell to cause Blindness would be good for Neera to learn, I noted. She nodded in agreement. The remainder of the known spell scrolls might be more appropriate for Eldoth it was agreed between the three of us arcane casters. The other scrolls looked like protection scrolls, Eldoth was all but certain. He just could not decipher them. We would have to get them identified by Drin or Silence.
“Aren’t you forgetting something, Eldoth?” Coran asked. Eldoth smiled a bit wearily and slowly withdrew a very handsomely bound tome from his pack. “Yes, yes, here it is,” Eldoth said with a slight tone of wistfulness.
I could see why the bard wanted to hold onto the book for himself. It looked to be of great value, written in a coded script I had never seen. This item too would require expert identification.
“So what happened next, Eldoth?” Neera asked with genuine enthusiasm, clearly entranced by the tale. Despite the fact that Neera’s infatuation with Eldoth bothered me, I had to admit that I too was eager to know.
“Well,” said Eldoth, "Next we paid a visit to a place that of course Coran knows quite well, and I had never been, but I fear might make you blush” he said with an air of mischief. Neera looked puzzled. Coran laughed at Neera’s expression and made a rejoinder. “A place you have never visited? My friends, please—it is Eldoth’s home away from home!” he chortled.
“True,” said the bard. “Though not merely for reasons of pleasure but rather for work—“ at which point Eldoth was interrupted by another burst of laughter from Coran, who coltishly bumped his shoulder into Imoen's in mirth at what Eldoth had said. “A bard must choose his words well, and here you have not my friend!” Coran laughed. “For next we visited the Undercellar!”
Eldoth beamed a closed-lipped, broad smile back at Coran, with just a hint of playful malice. “No, not that kind of work, thou most lecherous elf,” said Eldoth. Eldoth grinned impishly at Neera for a moment and continued, “Please forgive our friend’s ribald sense of humor… of course I’m referring to the work of a cutpurse, not a harlot.”
“Ooh” said Neera bashfully—although apparently more from a history of being removed from city life than from modesty. She commented briefly that the concept of prostitution is rather alien to her from her upbringing in the High Forest. Faldorn smiled affirmatively to her in support, but remained silent and cryptic as ever.
“Praytell, do continue,” said I, as I admit I was as curious to hear the next chapter of this adventure as Imoen and Neera were.
Eldoth continued that the entrance to the infamous Undercellar was a relatively short distance to the east, in the rear of a tavern named the Blushing Mermaid. The objective here would be for Eldoth to relieve as many patrons of their coin purses and other valuables as possible. Before entering the establishment our two rogues discussed the basic strategy. For the apparently easy targets Eldoth could work alone. But for those that appeared to pose a possible greater challenge, Coran would distract the mark by initiating conversation and/or clumsily getting in their way. Eldoth would consume a potion that increased his dexterity to an extraordinary level (he had three of them). And if he felt he needed an even higher level of assurance to succeed with a pick he would cast the spell that briefly gave him the favor of Tymora.
The pair noted that their backpacks were getting rather full. It was agreed that Eldoth should finally throw away the bandit scalps he had taken, as no buyers had been found for them. They could manage for now without some of the more mundane equipment they were carrying, which was easily replaceable for little cost—things such as standard arrows, sling bullets, Coran’s buckler, Eldoth’s chainmail, and so forth. These items they discarded into a trash barrel on the street.
And thus, Eldoth recounted, prior to entering the tavern he consumed a potion to improve his cutpurse skills. And they entered the pub.
Immediately upon setting foot inside the establishment they were accosted by a massive ogre brandishing an enormous spiked morning star, who accused Eldoth of being tied with the party of Oracos, as he could clearly see the resemblance from a wanted poster he had. (Now we all had wanted posters displaying our likenesses? That was disturbing.) Eldoth used his cunning to trick the lumbering beast into doubting the poster’s physical description; for he said he had heard that the party of Oracos was in fact a band of terrifying demons with glowing eyes! Therefore, best the ogre bounty hunter check the description on the poster again!
Likely the combination of the effects of Eldoth’s cloak along with the creature’s less-than-facile mind made this seem a perfectly reasonable notion to him. The ogre then felt an urge to go find the wanted poster that he had evidently left somewhere else in order to study it again. However, as the creature tried to leave the tavern, Coran tried to engage him in further conversation, blocking his exit path; and that gave Eldoth the opportunity to deftly remove a number of items from the giant’s pack and belt. The three items Eldoth picked were: a pair of apparently enchanted bracers, a spell scroll with which to open any lock, and a sphene gem.
Once inside the tavern it was apparent that it was filled with poorer commoner patrons, unlikely to be carrying enough coin or items to be worth the bother. So the two of them continued to the rear of the establishment, and passed through the door down into the Undercellar.
[Note: I roleplayed that their basic stance on locked chests in heavily trafficked areas such as taverns is that it is smartest not to attempt to steal from them (and indeed when one does the game engine runs a script that one is spotted). So they do not attempt to steal from the chest in the room with the door to the Undercellar. The guest rooms at an inn seem more reasonable targets, however; so they will attempt to hit containers in patrons' rooms.]
“Eldoth, can you tell us a little more about the Undercellar?” Imoen asked. Neera and I too added that we were curious to know more of it.
“In a nutshell, it is a place that nobles engage in pleasures of the flesh—in just about any manner one might conceive,” Eldoth replied. “Many wear masks there, although anyone who knows them would have little difficulty discerning who they are,” he added. “It is a very extensive cellar with many rooms for courtesans and their customers.”
Eldoth added that the Undercellar also connects to a vast sewer system beneath the city.
“Many of the nobles are smart enough not to bring anything of great value with them down there,” Eldoth continued. “But there are always those that have their purses filled to enjoy a night on the town, and go there on a lark.” Eldoth also explained that he regularly pays off the local Thieves Guild member Niklos to be allowed to pick there occasionally, but he must take care not to overdo it.
The place itself is dank and crumbling in places, he said; but for the nobles that seems to heighten the adventure.
Eldoth and Coran made a slow stroll through the Undercellar, keeping an eye out for potential marks that may be visible in any of the rooms that offered a glimpse from curtains not pulled entirely closed.
[Does Eldoth spot Quenash wearing the Cloak of Balduran? Result = red card. Yes, he notices the courtesan Quenash wearing a lavish cloak.]
Just off the center lounge area of the Undercellar, Eldoth recounted, he spotted a woman who was draped in a conspicuously fine, gold embroidered cloak. He at first believed her to be a noble due to the finery of the garment. But upon closer inspection he concluded that she was in fact a courtesan, though not one with whom he was familiar. Perhaps the cloak was a gift from a customer, he mused. It would without a doubt fetch a good sum of money in a city like this, Eldoth felt.
“You would steal from a workin’ girl?” exclaimed Imoen in exasperation.
Eldoth attempted to placate Imoen by responding that the Undercellar’s courtesans were themselves hardly exemplars of moral behavior. “They steal from each other! And sometimes they do so from each other’s customers. It happens all the time, believe me.” The explanation did not sit well with Imoen, however. Her face soured a bit into a harder expression at him as he continued, although it gradually relaxed again as the bard continued with the tale.
Eldoth noted that he made a mental note to return to the courtesan wearing the fine cloak. But first he and Coran made the circuit throughout the cellar. In some cases Eldoth brushed by a noble to see if he could make a pick. But for a couple of them who looked more wary, he signaled to Coran to distract them by speaking to them as Eldoth made his pass. None of them had anything of particular value, perhaps having paid in advance, Eldoth said.
Eldoth noted that for one of the attempts he became concerned that the noble had detected it, but he managed to strike up conversation with him in a manner that put him at ease.
[Actually, Eldoth’s attempt at pickpocketing failed here, even though his skill is at 95! I had him attempt to pickpocket on several nobles for RP value, although I was aware that they had no items. If one of them had gone hostile and called for the bouncer, then I would have had them flee into the sewers. Eldoth therefore used a charge from the nymph’s cloak preventatively, as from a RP vantage such a customer could easily go complain to the bouncer at the door. Of course Eldoth does not share that part, however.]
Our bard noted that based on that experience, he decided to cast his Blessings of Tymora spell on himself before attempting to lift the courtesan’s fine cloak. Then he and Coran went to chat her up. She was surprisingly surly toward Coran… perhaps she had no fondness for elves? But Coran who acted hurt and distressed from being so soundly rebuffed managed to distract the woman such that that Eldoth could reach from behind and unclasp the cloak without her seeing or feeling it. Eldoth then left the room in the direction directly behind her with cloak in hand, in a single move slipping it into his pack.
The two of them then both were aware that they should make a hasty exit, for it would likely not be long before the courtesan noticed the theft. They both figured the smartest choice for them then was to abscond from the Undercellar via the sewers; although both admitted that neither of them knew the labyrinth of sewer tunnels well… Plus they were putrid and foul! In any event, they would have to tolerate the sewer’s filth and stench but for a short distance only, hopefully, in order to resurface as soon as they could find a way up again.
[The easternmost door to the sewers is not accessible at this time. Flip card for which exit to use, where red = north door and black = west door. Result = red card. They exit into the sewers via the north corridor.]
Eldoth told that while it probably had been prudent for them to use the sewers, they were forced to travel much farther than either of them bargained for. Before finally coming to a ladder back up to a grate on the street above, they discovered several bloated remains of human bodies there, which appear to have been conveniently dumped there. Under such a circumstance it seemed little doubt but that they were murder victims. In all events, they were relieved to at last emerge from the sewers, Eldoth said.
At this point Eldoth produced the cloak from his pack. It immediately elicited coos from Neera and Imoen for its attractiveness. It was indeed a very fine garment: made of a dark gray silvery velvet with gold embroidery, and inside an insignia that Eldoth commented he believed to be the mark of the legendary founder of the city, none other than Balduran. That in itself was perhaps not so remarkable, Eldoth noted; for indeed the city is named after the legendary seafaring captain. But he continued that based on obscure marking around the insignia he believed that this particular cloak may be imbued with enchantments. It would therefore behoove us to have it inspected by an expert in item identification as well, he observed.
At any rate, Eldoth continued their story of their escapade the night before. Coran’s and Eldoth’s exit from the sewers brought the pair back to the docks region.
[Where to next? Further pickpocketing/burglary locations could include the following taverns: Helm and Cloak, Three Old Kegs, Elfsong Tavern, Blade and Stars, and the Splurging Sturgeon. However of the five taverns it looks like only the Helm and Cloak and Elfsong Tavern offer worthwhile rewards from the meta-game standpoint. So to increase fun value I’ll limit the selection to those two tavern inns, i.e., flip a card for which of those two locations to visit, such that red card = Helm and Cloak and black card = Elfsong Tavern.Result = black card. They will visit the Elfsong Tavern next.]
Eldoth then told that they still had a good bit of time to visit one or two more locations before daybreak where they might yet pick up some treasure. He recommended that they pay a visit to the Elfsong Tavern. Coran offered no objection. So off the duo went to see what larcenous opportunities might present themselves there.
Always nice to see CG(?) charnames with flexible moral standards such as Oracos. Could Eldoth and Coran enter the sewers without having to gather their party before venturing forth? That would be a surprise to me.
Have you considered having the party take on the Thieves Guild missions at this point? Maybe the guild takes notice of Coran and Eldoth's activities and that could be a story based way to draw them in? Just an idea.
I look forward to the further adventures of Oracos and friends!
Always nice to see CG(?) charnames with flexible moral standards such as Oracos. Could Eldoth and Coran enter the sewers without having to gather their party before venturing forth? That would be a surprise to me.
Yeah, the two of them heading off on their own is fudged due to the game engine mechanics. Throughout this jaunt I've had to park the rest of the party in the corner of the map and pretend that they're back at the Low Lantern. But anyway, yep, at the area transitions I do have to gather them to venture forth.
The party's personality and alignment breakdown supports Eldoth's and Coran's spree, I think. Imoen is the only one who might be morally troubled by it, but she is a) herself a thief! and, b) ever loyal to the PC, deferring to him. And Faldorn sees them all as corrupted by civilization to begin with.
Oracos, by now, at this stage of this (for him) strange and bewildering journey, is really kind of willing to go with the flow because none of what's happening makes any sense to begin with. Another contributing factor is that Eldoth is wearing the nymph cloak (giving him 18 Cha) and has essentially been acting as party leader.
Oracos with a Cha of 10, according to temperament is not instinctively inclined to seek the reigns of leadership. Here he's also surrounded by a lot of Cha personalities (even Neera's is higher). It's actually a minor miracle that anyone has allowed him to have the final say or deferred to his judgment all throughout the adventure. But I'm RPing that Oracos has supposed authority as an "expert" via Divination (the spells in the game don't give me much to work with, so it's by runecasting, augury, and most recently the stars, etc.).
Have you considered having the party take on the Thieves Guild missions at this point? Maybe the guild takes notice of Coran and Eldoth's activities and that could be a story based way to draw them in? Just an idea.
I look forward to the further adventures of Oracos and friends!
Thanks for following the adventure. :-)
The Thieves Guild quest has occurred to me too, and it could certainly happen. It could be RPed, for sure. But I think may be most fun to flip a card for whether it does happen...
One big consideration I have is that I can only enjoy this game for three weeks at a time quarterly throughout the year; and this current period of activity is coming to an end this coming Sunday. Then I'll be away from the project for another ten weeks while I'm hitting the books again in RL. I was sort of hoping to get the party back to Candlekeep before taking the next hiatus from the game. But another way of looking at it is that Chapter 5 is the last hurrah for wide open exploration (from a RP vantage) until the next set of events start funneling the action more narrowly toward resolution of the plot. So maybe I should just take my time and enjoy BG city a little more.
Beyond the Thieve's Guild (which would be forced upon them RP-wise) I think Oracos would want to complete Scar's mission, though. Also, Faldorn would press them to continue with the investigation of the Iron Throne. She's tolerating this current excursion by Eldoth and Coran because it's sidetracking them for only a couple of days, and it actually does make some sense to gather more coin as well. Anyway, I dunno, I'll have to see how it goes. :-)
Actually, the tension between Eldoth (as wearer of the nymph cloak) wanting to exploit this party to increase his own wealth versus Faldorn's imperative to get on with the investigation of the Iron Throne is a roleplayed element of the game that is currently gathering a bit of steam...
I'm at a sort of interesting roleplaying juncture, whereupon at the temple of Gond, completing Brevlik's quest to steal the telescope, I'm asking myself: would Coran loot the coffers of a temple of Gond?
I'm really not sure what he would do there... One would think that such an action would anger the deity, of course--which is a strong deterrent. But then again, what is the worst that is likely to happen from garnering the ire of such a deity, whose portfolio is basically about crafting? (Actually, Eldoth crafts his own poisoned arrows, and there could be some spillover to him. But that gets more complicated to implement than I really want to go through for the trouble.)
Coran could always rationalize to himself that he might make things right with a donation to the temple somewhere down the road... But by the same token, the gems in question are highly valuable: star sapphire = 2000 gp and rogue stone = 2500 gp. So that's a lot of coin to make up for at some future point! (If he sincerely wants to try to make things right with Gond eventually, at least in his mind.)
Incidentally, there's no particular relationship between Coran's favorite deity, Tymora, and Gond.
I could flip a card for it, of course. But any thoughts about whether theft of gems that are ostensibly offerings to the Gondian temple is something Coran would do?
I don't consider it very likely. He isn't kleptomanic or overly materialistic. Nor is the party in dire need of gold I assume. On the other hand he doesn't seem to be very pious and he likes to outwit others, and I can see him accepting the challenge if sufficiently provoked (Eldoth: 'I bet you wouldn't dare loot the coffers of the Temple of Gond.' Coran: 'Oh no? I'll have your poisoned arrows for the next ten days if I don't.')
Eldoth is also highly persuasive right now with Cha 18 via the nymph cloak.
But... here Coran's activity is currently out of sight/our of mind for Eldoth. Because Eldoth is back at the door keeping a lookout. I.e., he and Coran are out of perception range. So it really is up to Coran, as to whether he'll pick those locks and steal the contents.
Because of the relatively low traffic for this subforum and limited time to play today, I'm going to raise this in General where more people might actually see it and weigh in. Please continue this particular discussion here:
Eldoth told us a bit of the history and ambience of the tavern. It got its name from being haunted by the ghost of a maiden who can be faintly (but clearly) heard singing about having lost her lover to a great storm at sea. Eldoth sang a bit of it for us, and it was indeed a beautiful melody, and moving. Eldoth continued that the tavern was a favorite haunt of all manner of brigand and thief. It was a rather dangerous place to attempt his cutpurse skills, as no mercy whatsoever would be shown by the guards.
The improved pickpocketing ability from the potion that Eldoth had taken earlier in the evening was however still in effect, Eldoth reported. So he had a bit of confidence about his chances.
Eldoth and Coran entered the Elfsong Tavern and soon spotted their first mark. It was a gnome with a bit of a lost look to him, who stood in the center of the floor as if possibly awaiting someone; for he appeared to study everyone who entered the door. Coran introduced himself to the little fellow and began chatting as a means of distraction, Eldoth said.
The fellow’s name was Brevlick, and he wished to hire a thief to steal a particular item for him.
The gnome displayed such a conspicuous lack of confidence that it inspired Coran to squeeze a bit of gold from him simply to hear the offer (which prompted Imoen to bat Coran with her hand in a scolding gesture, and Coran responding with a ‘hey, what!?’ facial expression). Brevlik asked us if he would be willing to attempt to steal a mechanical device that he coveted which is on display at the Hall of Wonders, the museum for the city’s lavish temple of Gond. The item is an invention from the gnomish isle of Lantan, Brevlik explained. It uses curved glass to see things far away as if they were close—which should indeed be a valuable item indeed, Eldoth noted. Brevlik offered 500 gold plus a magical item if we could bring him the “Golden Extra-Farseer.” As to the magical item Brevlik would include as payment, he would not specify what it was. But he promised that it would be an item of real value.
Eldoth said that they accepted the offer. But as Brevlik and Coran chatted Eldoth lifted from him a wand that shoots bolts of lightning and a magical ring of some sort. The ring would have to be identified, he added.
The prospect of stealing something from the House of Wonders seemed nigh but impossible, Eldoth added. But the proposal seemed just enough worth the trouble for them to go there and take a look.
[Eldoth made a third pickpocket attempt and it failed, but he again used the nymph cloak to Charm Brevlik before he went hostile. I moved Brevlik to a side room, since he has then finally contracted a thief and via the roleplay would be likely to take a seat to wait for their return. Anyway, Eldoth keeps this pickpocketing failure to himself (and as mentioned he has also kept the cloak’s powers secret). I’ll be curious to see whether Brevlik will be hostile when they return to speak with him later.]
The duo found no other promising targets for pickpocketing on the first floor. So they paid a visit to the tavern’s second floor. There the first potential mark they saw was an imposing man who looked possibly to be a Norheim brigand or sell-sword. If the pickpocket failed, they could well have a serious fight on their hands. The warrior was holding in his hand a well-crafted bastard sword. On the other hand, the fellow looked to be somewhat inebriated which might make the pick easier, Eldoth said.
They decided to target this fellow last, Eldith stated. If the attempt to lift his sword failed and they had to flee, they would at least by then have relieved the other patrons of their valuables beforehand.
The other two potential targets were however even riskier. One was the proprietress Alyth—and it was a very bad idea to attempt to pickpocket her. The other was a merchant, who, especially in the environment of the Elfsong was in a naturally wary state. They spoke with him to examine his wares, and he actually had a few things of interest: mainly enchanted amulets, though the prices were too high for the value they would bring to our party.
So it was decided that next they would attempt to relieve the warrior of the heavy burden of his bastard sword, Eldoth smiled. However after talking with him a bit it was apparent that he was extremely wary, and unlikely to relax his grip onto the sword.
[Note: per the game engine the target had no items that a cut-purse of Eldoth’s skill—and he was at 95 in pickpocketing—could steal.]
Eldoth and Coran eventually decided to head over to the House of Wonders to see about the item that Brevlik wanted.
The House of Wonders , Eldoth told us, was a truly remarkable and indeed wondrous place, full of intriguing mechanical inventions crafted by followers of Gond. The Gondian clergy keeps the place dimly lit by use of hovering glowing orbs—which although impractical from a security standpoint nevertheless celebrate Gondian craftsmanship. Eldoth stated that the temple is closed at night, and there was no telling whether a way in could be found.
When they got to the temple, they discovered that the main entrance lock had already been skillfully picked! So there was likely a thief already inside. Perhaps, Brevlik had made the same proposal to a number of rogues.
The two of them cautiously entered, Eldoth continued. Coran then told the next set of events.
Coran stealthily crept ahead to investigate, and he came upon a rather cheerful halfing lass who was just about to make an attempt at picking a lock to a display cabinet, startling her. The hin was a friendly and trusting sort, perhaps to a fault. She lamented not having anyone to team up with in her burglary exploits. So she offered to stand as a lookout, but didn’t even try to bargain beforehand for a cut of the loot. She looked a fair bit of desperate to make a new friend, Coran observed. Coran said and he found himself feeling somewhat sorry for her (no surprise that, as Coran seems a good-natured fellow by natural disposition).
Coran said he therefore trusted Tymora in this instance and allowed her to keep a lookout, as he proceeded to steal the Golden Extra-Farseer device. That task competed, the halfling introduced herself as Alora; and she asked if she might join Coran in his travels. Coran said he responded to Alora that he was working with someone else, and the decision was not his to make; but if she could tell him where she might be found in the future, perhaps she might join the party at a later date. The halfling was excited by this prospect, and stated that she could usually be found in the Lady’s House, the temple of Tymora directly across the street. Alora did not ask for any compensation for having stood watch for a few moments. She seemed content with the future prospect of joining a party of adventurers.
Our elven thief said he thanked her and bid the hin lass a good eve, and thereupon she stealthily slipped into the shadows and absconded from the temple. Eldoth didn’t even notice her slip by, Coran laughed, getting in a good-natured barb at Eldoth; to which Eldoth responded with a light-hearted smirk.
[Here I had to do a workaround with the game engine mechanics. I temporarily added Alora/removed Imoen. Immy was in the corner of the map with the rest of the part; but per the roleplay, the rest of the party is not actually there. I then Ctrl+J’ed the party to the temple of Tymora and had them enter, and inside the temple dropped Alora. Upon exiting the temple I Ctrl+J’ed the party back to the corner of the map where Imoen stood, and re-added her. Then I Ctrl+J’ed Eldoth and Coran back to the temple of God and had them enter again. I repositioned Coran at the spot where he encountered Alora, and Eldoth right next to the door but out of perception range of Coran. Then the game resumed.
Coran then notices the locked coffers to Gond lining the temple wall and he is seized with the impulse to help himself to the treasure there. Coran deliberates a moment… and not whether such an action would anger Gond, since (he believes) it surely would…. but rather should it be a worthwhile risk to take. He could always make amends later to Gond, he muses…
Does Coran loot the temple’s coffers? Result = red card. Yes. Coran gives in to the temptation to raid the coffers. He picks the locks and finds a rogue stone and star sapphire gem, which he grabs.
The star sapphire Coran gives to Eldoth as special compensation for conceiving the plan. Coran keeps the rogue stone for himself, although Coran keeps mum about it.
Eldoth asks Coran if there was any more treasure than the star sapphire, and Coran responds that there was in fact one other gem of roughly the same value, that Coran will keep. This is more or less accurate, as a star sapphire is worth 2000 gp, and a rogue stone fetches 2500 gp.
Eldoth mulls whether to prod him for more information. But he decides he can tolerate not knowing precisely what the treasure is, so he elects not to pressure Coran for any more information about the elf’s share of the loot from the coffers.]
Eldoth then continued the tale. The two of them went first to se Halbazer Drin to see if he was interested in purchasing the item. Once at Sorcerous Sundries they showed Drin the Golden Extra-Farseer. Eldoth explained that a halfling lass had sold it to them for one thousand gold, and he now regretted the purchase.
[Here Drin could either a) not be aware that such an item was on display at the Hall of Wonders, or b) even if he is and suspects the item to be stolen, he may wish to recover it for the temple at a modest profit for himself. I will roleplay that he is potentially willing to make a trade from the items in his store for the telescope.
Does Drin offer a trade? Result: red card = yes.And as such he will offer from among the following list of items:
1) 3 Darts of Wounding 2) 1 Potion of Hill Giant Strength 3) 1 Potion of Absorption 4) 1 Oil of Speed 5) 1 Potion of Insight 6) 1 Potion of Strength 7) 1 Scroll of Know Alignment 8) 1 Scroll of Color Spray 9) 1 Scroll of Identify 10) 1 Scroll of Detect Invisibility 11) 1 Scroll of Web 12) 1 Scroll of Contagion 13) 1 Scroll of Slow 14) 1 Scroll of Skull Trap 15) 1 Scroll of Remove Curse 16) 1 Scroll of Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere 17) 1 Scroll of Spirit Armor 18) 1 Scroll of Polymorph Self 19) 1 Scroll of Protection from Undead 20) 1 Wand of Frost
Accordingly, roll 1d20 for the item that is offered. Result: 16. Drin offers to trade a scroll of Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere for the telescope.]
Halbazer Drin studied the item for a rather long period of time, without saying a word. He seemed to be mulling something. He finally looked up, and stated simply that he would offer to trade of a spell scroll for the spyglass. The spell he wished to trade encases the target in a sphere of magical energy that protects the occupant from any spell, but also prevents him or her from acting on the surrounding world (design of the spell is credited to a wizard named Otiluke, he said).
In its value in gold, the spell scroll matched Brevlik’s offer for coin—although Brevlik had offered to sweeten the pot with another magical item as well. Eldoth related that he then explored whether Drin make consider a trade for some other items in his store, but Drin refused to entertain them.
Coran and Eldoth stepped away to confer with one another, and decided that they would simply cash in the item with Brevlik since he was probably the most strongly “motivated” buyer that they would find.
Eldoth told next that they returned to the Elfsong to complete the transaction with Brevlik. They found the gnome at a table in a side room, and he was quite excited to see them. Brevlik was ecstatic to obtain the Farseer, paid the 500 gold, and, as promised gave them an additional magical item.
[Since Eldoth already pickpocketed Brevlik’s lightning wand, he will offer something else of comparable value from the following list (thanks to BGEE forum member jacobtan for suggesting this from the 2nd edition DMG, based on XP required for wizard item crafting, slightly modified by me):
1) Ring of Protection +2 2) Ring of Wizardry 3) Wand of Fear 4) Wand of Magic Missiles 5) Wand of Polymorphing 6) Cloak of Displacement 7) Cloak of Protection +2 8) Cloak of Non-Detection 9) Scroll of Protection from Acid 10) Scroll of Protection from Cold 11) Scroll of Protection from Fire 12) Scroll of Protection from Petrification
Roll 1d12 for which item he gives them as a reward. Result: 11. Brevlik gives them a scroll of Protection from Fire. This item is added to Coran’s inventory via EE Keeper.]
The item was a scroll that provides divine protection from Fire. A rather valuable item, actually.
“And thus endeth our adventure for the evening,” Eldoth said with a small sigh. He ended by telling that they had some drinks to celebrate at the Elfsong, and then headed back to the Low Lantern to still manage to get some rest before this day was to begin.
With breakfast finished the party walked to Sorcerous Sundries to have items identified and convert some to coin.
[After making the deal with Brevlik Eldoth attempted to persuade Coran that they should keep keep most of the treasure for themselves, and cash it out now, bringing back a quarter of it in coin for the party. Despite the influence of Coran’s cloak, to this Coran did not agree. Coran has developed quite a fondness by now for the party. He likes Imoen and Neera in particular. And he feels sympathy for Oracos as well, liking him well enough also. Coran figured there is almost certain to be even greater treasure on the path ahead. Moreover he is enjoying the thrill of this particular adventure that they are on. So the goodness in Coran’s heart, his sense of attachment to the party, and thrill for adventure the party is on overrided his personal friendship with Eldoth and temptation for personal gain. Plus, he felt the rogue stone is enough of a personal reward for him at that point.
Coran responded to Eldoth that the star sapphire gem should hold him for now, and Coran is gambling that they will come into even greater treasure by remaining loyal to the party. Coran added that the same thought had occurred to him as well. But he prayed to Tymora about it, and this is how he feels moved after doing so.
Eldoth was peeved at this and persisted in trying to convince Coran that they should just divvy up the treasure and be done. But Coran did not budge.
At this point I could have flipped a card as to whether Eldoth charmed Coran with the cloak, took all the loot, and leaft the party. But instead I roleplayed that he decides to stick around.
It really could easily have gone the way of Eldoth betraying them, I realize. But as Eldoth mulled over the option, what stopped him is the consideration that, as Coran has observed, there may well be far greater treasure ahead. They will be dealing with the wealthy trade organizations of the Seven Suns and Iron Throne, after all. So Eldoth grudgingly opted to stick with the party, despite Coran messing up his plan to make a quick score and take off.
Also something of a factor, although a lesser one, is that Eldoth genuinely does rather like Coran. Eldoth is NE, but theoretically friendships still can somewhat mitigate that alignment’s sheer greed and selfishness. Alignments are intended as rough guidelines, after all.
With the XP gained from Brevlik’s quest the Oracos and Imoen both level up (to Diviner 4 and Thief 5, respectively). Oracos thereby gains two more level 1 spell slots and one level two spell slot. Imoen puts all 25 skill points into Find Traps, raising the skill level to 75.
And here I hit a game engine wrinkle: when I returned everyone to the Low Lantern and rested the party, immediately afterward Eldoth’s quest timer triggered him to leave! I therefore ended up having to do some “out-of-story” housekeeping with the game engine. I opened the auto-save just before entering the Baldur’s Gate South (docks) map with the party on Baldur’s Gate Southeast map, and CLUAed Skie. I had her join the party temporarily, removing Imoen to do this. I Ctrl+Yed Skie and placed her bow and arrows in a barrel. I picked up her 36 gp loot drop also, and later subtracted it via EE Keeper. I had Imoen rejoin. Eldoth then will remain with the party. (Skie will still be at the Silvershield estate if the party wishes to add her later.) It seems that the same result can be achieved by using EE Keeper to add the global variable RESCUEDSKIE and setting its value to 1, within one day's time after Eldoth first sets foot on the map with the Silvershield estate.
The party then proceeded to the Low Lantern to rest.]
With our breakfast finished and the tale of Eldoth’s and Coran’s adventure completed, I then asked Coran and Eldoth how many items we had that had as yet unknown origins and possible enchantments. They advised that the count came to ten. I then advised the party that between Neera and me we could identify all of them, saving ourselves a thousand gold. We would of course have to rest twice (once for the spells to discover what the items are, and yet again to memorize the spells we’ll need for combat), but it seemed worth the delay. All agreed that this would be wise.
[Before resting Faldorn selects Detect Evil and Know Alignment for memorization. Oracos memorizes eight castings of Identify. Neera memorizes two castings of Identify. Eldoth changes one memorization of Blind to Friends.]
So this is what we did. (And I should note that I was excited to have reached the point in my studies as a wizard that, from now on, I could now begin devoting at least one casting of the spell to identify items to memorization; maybe even two. For until now our survival had depended on me memorizing combat spells alone.)
The items that Eldoth and Coran had acquired were as follows: a tome with difficult formulas by which to permanently increase mental powers of understanding, concentration, and memory (which would disappear after its enchantment is used); a pair of bracers that improve accuracy with weapons, once owned by a legendary mercenary named Xarrnous; a superior quality club made of darkwood that is crafted around an iron core, and enchanted by virtue of Shar’s Shadow Weave to be highly accurate at night; a spell scroll that protects against any (!)magic; a spell scroll that protects against any poison; and a cloak that was owned by none other than Balduran himself, and which offers significant protection from physical attacks and magic, both. And as mentioned before, their spree had also gained them a lighting wand, a wand of paralysis, and a scroll of protection against fire.
Now, however, there were also three items that it turns out were cursed: a ring that permanently gives the wearer the mind of a simpleton; and two spell scrolls that affect the user in more or less the same manner as the ring. Each would require a spell to remove the curse—and the two cursed scrolls might even potentially kill the person attempting to cast them.
Eldoth matter-of-factly commented that, naturally, the items that he had acquired were to remain in his possession if we did not need to sell them.
“Naturally,” said Faldorn, with a seemingly less than sincere smile. Eldoth looked at her mockingly as if hurt, followed by a faint eyeroll. He then turned his attention to flirt with Neera.
I decided to give Eldoth the spell scroll I had been carrying that paralyzes enemies with a touch similar to that of a ghast. He seemed genuinely grateful. I asked that Eldoth to please give Neera the scroll for the spell to blind targets, which he presented as if it was an important gift. (To which she playfully feigned a response of being overwhelmed by his gentlemanly attention.)
Because Eldoth could not wear two robes, he reluctantly allowed Coran to don the cloak once worn by Balduran—but he cautioned Coran never to forget that it was still his (Eldoth’s). We would still need to have its value appraised and decide whether to sell it. Similarly, Coran felt that Faldorn should hold onto the enchanted club, at least until we could determine its monetary worth.
As to the tome, it was agreed we would wait to see what price it may fetch before deciding what to do with it.
I then recommended that before attempting to scribe our new spells, Neera and Eldoth obtain potions that increase the strength of their minds to stand a better chance of learning spells. We could also then learn the value of the items we have, and consider selling some of them for coin with which to buy more useful things. This met with agreement by all. Eldoth reminded us however that Halbazer had no more such potions in stock. So we would have to travel west to the southwestern section of the city where there was two potion shops.
As I was suggesting this I noticed that Faldorn twice very quietly uttered incantations; and each time afterward she gazed briefly at Eldoth. [Faldorn casts Detect Evil and Know Alignment.] Her penetrating stare—although it lasted only a brief moment each time—seemed to make Eldoth visibly uncomfortable.
“What are you doing, witch?” Eldoth asked, perturbed. “Casting some sort of spell to rot the wood in my arrows?” he joked.
“No, nothing was done to you, minstrel,” Faldorn responded calmly. “Interesting that you mentioned rot, though,” she added pointedly.
“Ehm, I think our druidess must be going mad from prolonged exposure to civilization,” Eldoth quipped. “Perhaps you should return to the forest before you start prowling around on all fours like all the cats that roam this fair city.”
“Perhaps,” said Faldorn, whose self-possession and poise seemed to act as a fulcrum upon which Eldoth’s reactions teetered as he increasingly strove to be clever. Aware that he didn’t seem to be faring well in the verbal joust, the bard abandoned the repartee. He again turned his attention to Neera, lavishing his attention upon her. Neera seemed to relish it.
We then agreed to walk to the westerly shops to purchase the potions that would aid us in scribing our spells.
As we made our leisurely stroll westward through the docks, Neera came up alongside me and quietly joined me in private conversation, using hushed tones. She confided that she was haunted by an increasing fear of her use of wild magic. Indeed, she said, she had entirely ceased practicing her spells, lest we be subjected to some horrific outcome from it. It was clear from the half-elf lass’s demeanor that her heart was in fact deeply troubled. Her large, almost black eyes welled as she spoke, and I was moved by strongly protective feelings toward her. And, I admit, perhaps by even more—although I had accepted that such a thing would not come to pass, since in both appearance and charm I was no match for the other two males in the group. And I saw how she looked at Eldoth.
Neera asked that before proceeding with our investigation of the Seven Suns, could we please visit a wild mage who she had heard might be able to help her better control the Weave? His name was Adoy, she said. The problem was that he was said to reside several days to the south—indeed just east of the Firewine bridge. I remarked that it was a long journey. But if she was sure that she needed to do this for everyone’s safety, then it would be prudent for us to listen to her.
Surprisingly for me, without much reflection I responded to Neera that I would support her request. I would present the request to the party before we rested next to memorize our spells. Neera squeezed my arm in gratitude and smiled. She seemed relieved for having voiced something that she had been withholding, at some discomfort. She then thanked me again and dropped back to chat with best friend, Imoen.
And then it was Faldorn’s turn to approach me to confer. The druidess came alongside and asked that we speak privately. She lowered the volume of her voice enough as to be clearly heard by my ears, but not by those of the others.
“You are a Diviner, are you not, Oracos?” Faldorn asked.
“Aye, that I am,” I answered proudly.
“Have you never cast the spell to discern the character of others, when in the company of this band?” she asked nonchalantly. “Or to detect when there is evil about, for that matter?”
I responded that I had not. But that was thus far of necessity, for I had greater need of spells that would protect us from enemy attacks. I reminded Faldorn that numerous attacks had been made on my life and against the party by association. She nodded that she was aware.
“And you have never feared an enemy from within?” the druidess queried patiently.
“No,” I answered somewhat uneasily. I was suddenly uncomfortable at the thought that I may have overlooked a danger that someone else was able to discern. (And me the Diviner…) “Please tell your thoughts. What do you suspect?” I asked her squarely.
“You could probably guess who,” she said.
“Eldoth?” I responded.
She nodded affirmatively in response, as she gazed at the street sights. “His heart is black coal,” she said quietly. “Do not trust him.”
“What then of Coran?” I asked, even more troubled at the thought of multiple potential traitors in our band.
“Coran has a heart that is stout and true. He is worthy of your trust in that sense. But he is like an impetuous boy.” Faldorn paused as if about to speak more, but stopped herself. “There is much goodness in his heart,” she said in conclusion. Then she seemed compelled to add added one more observation about the elf. “I think Coran is not the fool that he may at times appear to be” she said. “He seems to have been called to protect the Oak Father’s forest with his bow. He was completely at home in the Cloakwood. I do not expect you to understand, but that speaks better of him than you could know,” she finished.
“And Neera?” I asked quickly before she moved away.
“She’s fine,” Faldorn smiled. “As, of course, is Imoen—but you knew that,” she added. The druidess paused yet again, and continued after a bit of thought. “Due to her needfulness Neera could be led astray by the bard, I suppose” she said. “But that just means you must do your part to be strong enough to prevent that from happening,” she smiled encouragingly. “Do not fear to lead.”
I sincerely thanked Faldorn for the conversation, though I felt chagrinned that I had allowed Eldoth’s charm to have guiled me, if Faldorn was correct. I would have to purchase the spells that Faldorn mentioned and try them for myself. I had just never had a desire to learn them at Candlekeep. I was much more interested in discovering the purposes of enchanted items and the mysterious contents of arcane tomes than seeing into the hearts of other people. That felt to me like a trespass of some sort. But now, unfortunately, there was a practical need of it. I certainly wasn’t in Candlekeep anymore.
When we arrived at the two shops of which Eldoth spoke, the first was sure enough a potion shop—but it also did not have the potions we needed to be more successful at scribing new spells. The second shop to which Eldoth had referred was now a weapons shop (with some good gear there--we might return to buy some of it when we have more coin). So we decided to attempt to hope for the best with our minds unaided. We would attempt to scribe them at Sorcerous Sundries, which was a calm place, and conducive with wizardly meditations.
It had just passed from dusk to nighttime by the time we arrived at Halbazer Drin’s shop.
Eldoth by far had the most spells to scribe. He told us that he feared that if he attempted to scribe more than three, he would probably just waste the scrolls. To his great pleasure his first attempt was successful: he learned the spell with which to open any lock! Eldoth explained that he next considered attempting to scribe the spell to make himself invisible. But he felt it more prudent for now to be able to cast that spell quickly in an emergency by simply incanting it from the scroll, even though that would exhaust the scroll without learning it. Eldoth then shared that he next decided to try scribing the spell to paralyze victims with the touch of a ghoul. But, sadly, that effort fizzled. Eldoth said that he then decided to quit attempting to scribe. He would hold onto the other spells for the time being.
Neera had only the spell that caused blindness to learn. She successfully scribed it.
And I had no spells to learn. So we were ready to see what the value of various items was, and to possibly make some transactions with Drin.
Eldoth quietly cast his spell to increase his likeability. And then we got appraisals for the various items. The most impressive among our new items was the cloak once owned by Balduran. Drin offered no less than eight thousand gold for it. Next most valuable was the tome at two and a half thousand gold. Eldoth’s bracers—that is, the ones that he pickpocketed from the ogre bounty hunter—were worth two thousand gold. The spell scroll to temporarily block all magic spells was worth nine hundred gold. The “club of Shar” was worth The other items were all in the several-hundreds. Interestingly, Drin offered to buy the cursed ring and a phony potion of absorption 50 gold each which of course we accepted.
We decided that most of the items that Eldoth and Coran had acquired were rather useful to us. Eldoth said he wanted to hold onto all of his items to begin with (there’s a surprise!). The cloak was powerful; and if any hand-to-hand fighting ensued Coran was the most skilled at it. He clearly would need the cloak. But in the same vein, it was well that Eldoth wear the bracers—for Coran alone would likely be overtaken by enemies. Eldoth will probably need to fight by his side. And by the same token, Faldorn should wield the Shadow Weave club. She too may have to battle enemies brandishing melee weapons.
In the same spirit Coran suggested that I should use the tome. I countered that it might be just as useful for Neera than me, at which Neera seemed sincerely touched. She was flattered and about to accept, but Faldorn interrupted to state that in her opinion it benefit the entire party the most overall if in fact I used it. I did have to acknowledge that for me to use the tome would in fact make it nearly (though not perfectly) certain that I could scribe most any spell. Neera commented that of course that was right, although anything that would help her control her wild magic might also be a sound investment. Faldorn gave me a knowing look, as if to remind me of our conversation.
I stated confidently that I agreed that it was probably best that I use it. And I read the book. The tome did indeed instantly vanish once my mind grasped the arcane formulas within it. And, sure enough, I could feel a new level of sharpness to my mind, and in my ability to use the Weave.
We decided that for now we should hold onto everything we had, as it was all potentially useful. We would also conserve our funds which now stood at nearly three thousand gold.
With my conversation earlier with Faldorn still fresh in my mind, I then announced to the group that we were going to take an unexpected excursion to the south. I explained that Neera’s powers were growing rapidly and soon would be highly dangerous if we did not act quickly to remedy the situation. We needed to seek out her former mentor just to the east of the Firewine bridge. Through my divinations I was able to discern that this was unmistakably the course we must now follow. We would leave in the morning.
Not surprisingly, Eldoth objected vehemently. “I think there is more to be gained by continuing our investigations for Scar here, as we had promised!” the bard said heatedly. “If we don’t act soon he could conceivably claim that our contract is void,” Eldoth continued. “All we must do is simply gather a bit of information for him—just that, and for two thousand gold!” He then noticed Neera who appeared taken aback. Eldoth caught himself and said to her tenderly, “I’m sorry, my flower… but really, won’t you be fine?” Then his tone grew slightly more impatient. “Just don’t use your magic!” Eldoth then turned back to the group and asked sternly, “Also, does our word mean nothing?”
Faldorn laughed. “You like being leader don’t you?” she said light-heartedly. “But outside of the city you’re lost as a lamb, it seems.” Faldorn then uncharacteristically put her hand on Coran’s shoulder, and said to him. “Wouldn’t it be nice to venture back into the wilds again, thief? We’ll surely need your excellent scouting skills again there.” Coran seemed flattered and thanked Faldorn for the compliment.
I said firmly but gently, “We’re going.”
But I then followed that up with an observation that I felt to be true. “Eldoth, we need your skills for this journey,” I said. “And we will need you even more when we return here to the Gate, hopefully in less than a tenday.”
And I then reminded Eldoth of something that I felt was hard for him to refute. “We already waited for two days while you and Coran took some immense risks. Now I know that we did that in order that all benefit from your plan to grow our wealth. But the fact remains that we agreed to your proposal. Can we now not extend essentially the same courtesy to another one of our group?” I also added for emphasis, “And who is currently in dire need?”
Eldoth then collected himself, and suavely as ever said “Of course you are right…” He paused as if carefully weighing a thought. “I have no more to add, for now,” he said seemingly unconcerned. “Neera, forgive me my dear. It is only that I feel I can care for you better here with all of my contacts. But I am certainly no fish-out-of-water in the wilderness. You found me alive and well in the Cloakwood did you not?”
We all acknowledged that was true.
“Come,” Coran said patting Eldoth on the back. “Let us enjoy some good drink and conversation tonight back at the Low Lantern. We’ll be back here in the city in no time.”
Neera and Imoen then made the request that in fact, we not return to the Low Lantern, for it was not a place where a good night sleep was to be had. I added my agreement. Faldorn nodded affirmatively as well. Somewhat to Coran’s and Eldoth’s disappointment, it was agreed by the majority that we would stay at the first out-of-the-way inn we had used upon first arriving in the city.
There we enjoyed a quiet evening of relaxation, drink, and song by Eldoth—who truly was a talented singer. We memorized spells, of course. For myself, in addition to the ones I had grown accustomed to using I memorized two castings of the spell to identify items, and one casting of the spell with which to see creatures that have made themselves invisible. I happy to finally have the luxury of beginning to use the spells of the school I had chosen.
And so it was on an early sunny morn on the fourteenth day of the Time of Flowers in the Year of the Year of the Banner that we departed the fair city of Baldur’s Gate, to journey south for a time to the home of Adoy, the wild mage, in the hope that this sage could help Neera master the highly unpredictable flow of the Weave within her.
Okay, that'll be it for another ten weeks. I'll be back in mid June to pick up the adventure.
I wish there was time to hone the prose, but there isn't. I know it could be better.
One thing that pleases me: the party's interpersonal dynamics are fairly interesting, I think. I'm enjoying how it has shaped up. There's a triangle between Oracos, Neera, and Eldoth. Eldoth and Coran are bros. Imoen and Neera are BFFs. Imoen and Coran are also pals. Faldorn has aligned herself with Oracos and Coran. There's a potential traitor in their midst (Eldoth) and a spy to root him out (Faldorn). I'm pretty happy with how those interconnecting constellations of relationships might develop as the plot finally begins to fully reveal itself.
After completing Neera's quest I think I will begin bringing the adventure to it's conclusion. And I do intend to see this through to completion!
I think there should be a lot of meaty material to roleplay off of once the plot heats up in chapters 6 and 7. There may be less things to leave to chance via card flips and die rolls. But the roleplay will probably get richer.
This is what's inspiring me to maybe make a roleplay journal of my own, one day.
It's fresh, new, and exciting: as well as well written, which is definitely a plus. I await eagerly for the day Eldoth inevitably betrays them and they have to look for a sixth (Tiax?) (I just have a sense that such a day will eventually come, knowing Eldoth). Regardlessly of where you go, however, I'm very fond of this little roleplay. I hope to run one just as good, one day. Cheers!
Okay, that'll be it for another ten weeks. I'll be back in mid June to pick up the adventure.
I wish there was time to hone the prose, but there isn't. I know it could be better.
One thing that pleases me: the party's interpersonal dynamics are fairly interesting, I think. I'm enjoying how it has shaped up. There's a triangle between Oracos, Neera, and Eldoth. Eldoth and Coran are bros. Imoen and Neera are BFFs. Imoen and Coran are also pals. Faldorn has aligned herself with Oracos and Coran. There's a potential traitor in their midst (Eldoth) and a spy to root him out (Faldorn). I'm pretty happy with how those interconnecting constellations of relationships might develop as the plot finally begins to fully reveal itself.
After completing Neera's quest I think I will begin bringing the adventure to it's conclusion. And I do intend to see this through to completion!
I think there should be a lot of meaty material to roleplay off of once the plot heats up in chapters 6 and 7. There may be less things to leave to chance via card flips and die rolls. But the roleplay will probably get richer.
I agree with @Twani, your witing as well as your roleplaying is excellent, and inspiring. At this moment I'm too impatient, too eager to no-reload my way into Amn, but a journal and a roleplaying experience like yours is my ideal. I think that for such a run I'd even let the Fates decide my entire charname (race, class/kit, alignment, stats etc.) See you in ten weeks. I hope all will go well for you both at work and at school.
The game is now resumed and I'll have an update soon. But before continuing, first more of a theoretical question: Roughly what odds would you give that a bard like Eldoth would be knowledgeable about the Color Spray spell's effectiveness? I think I would like to have him use it (Oracos and Neera can cast Sleep; so it would be nice to add Color Spray into the mix). I would have Eldoth recommend buying a scroll for that spell at Sorcerous Sundries for him to learn. I could do a 50% chance with a card flip. But I would think the chance is probably a bit higher. Maybe 66%? What do you all think?
Hoorray! One of my favourite story continues! And for the question: the chance can be somewhere around 75 percent. Eldoth knows some wizards, and there is also some chance, that he ask someone who will suggest him to learn Color Spray. At least, i imagine that way.
Thanks, and after spending the last ten weeks squeezing in hours of powergaming here and there from some other games, this is a joy to return to. :-)
Yeah, I'd agree that 75% feels about right. It's a low level spell that he'd know of. The random element is whether Eldoth, personally, would want to use it. Anyway, I'll use the WotC die roller to roll 1d4: If I roll a 1 then he doesn't ask to use the spell. But if I roll a 2, 3, or 4 then he will.
Rolled a 2. Yay! I do have Eldoth meleeing sometimes, so Color Spray will be fun. He is level 4, btw.
A related question is what would Eldoth's input and personal style be from the tactical standpoint. I know that this is to some extent up to my creativity, but I do want to try to approach his behavior from a committed roleplaying vantage. I'm trying to imagine what the character would do in his own right, independent from what I as a player wish he would do.
Theoretically, Eldoth could at times basically choose to live dangerously and adopt the Fighter/Mage approach with use of Armor, Shield (via an amulet), and Blur--which gets his AC to 1. When he commits to this combat style, he would probably cast Strength regularly as well. Mirror Image could be added in as too, I suppose. Anyway, buffed as such Eldoth could use Color Spray and wands on the front line. (Although clearly not as safely as if he remained to the rear and just used bow, wands, and spells.)
Now, martially, Eldoth has 2 APR with the longbow--plus he has his poisoned arrows. (Otherwise with a scimitar APR is 1.) When Hasted he'll have 3 APR with bow, and firing poisoned arrows. And he could even use a composite longbow while under the effects of Strength. (Edit: Forgot that Bards can't use composite longbows.) So Eldoth could wade in, wreak havoc on enemies with Color Spray and wands of Sleep, Horror, and Paralyzation, and then start pumping enemies full of poisoned arrows.
But is that really who Eldoth is? To be honest about it, I imagine that he would have stronger self-preservation instincts. He is self-centered, of course. But still... on the other hand, I could imagine Neera being impressed by such bravery if Eldoth were to do this even once just in order to show off for her. For example, let's say Neera starts to cozy up to Oracos and starts praising Coran for what a brave warrior he is--and that tweaks Eldoth's narcissism (and his competitiveness as an 'alpha'). This manipulates Eldoth into considering more heroic displays of combat. And perhaps Neera wishes to be in control of the flirtation that is mutually going on between her and Eldoth. She then mischievously turns the tables (i.e., she has appeared to be infatuated with him) to try to manipulate him to see if she can get him to continue to demonstrate his bravery.
An advantage of doing so for Eldoth is that through such acts of bravery he can claim more authority as a leading decision-maker for the party.
The journey south along the Coast Way was relatively uneventful. South of Beregost we were attacked by a pack of wild dogs that fortunately did not pose too severe a threat.
About midway between Beregost and Nashkel we traveled east, and came upon the ruins of the Ulcaster school of wizardry, tales of which had fascinated me since childhood. The ruins stood atop a ridge of cliffs, and we made our way through a kind of desert-like gorge enclosed by the cliffs. Before continuing we decided to rest first at the northernmost edge of the ridge. With Shaundakul’s and Mielikki’s blessings we were able to sleep and meditate upon our spells without suffering any attacks, which in these wilds was sadly all too common. We decided to push on through the night, despite the stories Imoen and I had both heard growing up of strange phenomena and ghost sightings at the ruins.
Coran scouted ahead, as was our custom now in any wilderness environment. Coran soon returned from his reconnaissance to report that he spied a pair of Chill elite archer bandits lying in wait for unwary travelers ahead. The highwaymen blocked our way forward. So our plan was then to sneak up and I would cast the Dozing spell upon them before they could spot us.
The plan mainly succeeded, although it only put one of them into a slumber. The other launched an arrow that pierced Coran’s armor with the arrow head penetrating his flesh. This wound would eventually require some healing, but the elf shrugged it off for the time being.
Coran scouted further ahead and returned to report that a traveler just ahead appeared to be camping dangerously close to a trio of Chill bandits. The Chill and the traveler apparently had no idea of each other’s presence.
“Shouldn’t we to warn him?” Imoen asked, having become the conscience of our band in such matters.
Not surprisingly Eldoth scoffed at the suggestion. Faldorn remained stoic and impassive as ever, indicating no preference. Neera , Coran, and I however all sided with Imoen. So we devised a plan.
Coran would sneak up to the fellow and quietly try to alert the man. Should the brigands should spot Coran, however, then Neera and I would each be ready to cast the Slumber spell, and Faldorn would attempt to Charm one of them to attack the others. Faldorn decided to also cast an enchantment upon herself to make her skin as tough as tree bark; for if Coran was detected both she Eldoth would then rush the archers--she with her enchanted club and he wielding his scimitar. Imoen offered to double around and sneak up behind the hobgoblins so that she may be prepared to launch a sneak attack with her short sword if necessary. But hopefully none of this would be needed if Coran could but simply alert the man and get him to safety.
Such preparation was now our custom. And once again the practice was rewarded. For Coran was in fact detected by the hobgoblins. And there were two more bandits than he had spotted! They fired arrows from a distance, upsetting our plan.
During the battle both Coran and Eldoth took poisonous arrows; Eldoth did so twice, in fact—but I twice cast my spell to heal Eldoth from the poison, and Coran drank a healing potion that also stopped the poison in his veins. Disappointingly, my Slumber spell put only one of them to sleep. So in following up, I turned to the Blindness spell instead for others. Neera cast a spell to make the one attacking Eldoth so feeble in strength that he could barely swing his sword; and she also Blinded another. And Faldorn did successfully enchant one to do her bidding. Neera had just blinded the one that was charmed. But at least this kept him out of the fray until we could kill him once the others were slain.
Faldorn and I healed up Coran and Eldoth before we proceeded further. Eldoth commented that he was just about to use his wand of Horrification upon the remaining enemies; but fortunately they were dispatched before he had to do so, as it would have wasted a charge of the wand.
Had we lacked my ability to stop poison through magic, or if Coran did not have the elixir that stopped poison, then one or both of them could well have died. This sobered our victory.
Among the possessions of one of the hobgoblins was a pair of enchanted boots that I cast a spell upon to identify. The boots possessed the very same magic as the pair that Imoen wore to slink about unseen. These we gave to Coran for occasional use in sneak attacks. His “Paws of the Cheetah” boots provided us more of an overall advantage in most circumstances, however. But the stealthy pair may yet come in handy. We were still glad to have the added ability for Coran to sneak about if needed.
It turned out that the traveler was a messenger carrying word to Baldur’s Gate of a possible invasion from Amn. This was hardly news, it seemed. But perhaps some movement of troops had actually begun? Unfortunately, before we could question the messenger further he sped off.
Our journey then continued relatively uneventfully through the night until a pair of wolves attacked us as we made our way to the Firewine Bridge. A Terror and Slumber spell neutralized this attack entirely, and Faldorn summoned a dread wolf of her own; although it turned out the summoned creature’s aid wasn’t needed.
By late afternoon the following day we arrived at the ruins of what was formerly a monumental stone bridge that spanned a dry river bed that had cut a rather deep channel. Eldoth shared that this was the site of a great wizard battle several centuries ago, which altered the course of the river! Myself, I had only heard that it was a place where the Weave behaves strangely at times—however that was all I knew; which I added to the discussion. Not to be outdone, Eldoth continued that he had heard that the hin of the halfling village a bit to the north steer clear of the area, despite the fact that magic items from that great battle are even to this day sometimes discovered here.
We would need to rest soon since we had traveled throughout the night. But we decided to have Coran scout ahead to assess how safe it would be. We advanced cautiously behind Coran, who returned to us just short of the bridge’s north end to report that he spotted an elderly man by himself donned in tattered garb, who was softly muttering what Coran assumed most likely to be prayers, although Coran added that could not quite make out his words. Perhaps someone prospecting for treasure, as Eldoth had mentioned? In any event, it was decided that we would risk speaking with him, with no dissenting opinions about that plan.
Eldoth did the talking to the fellow, and the conversation that followed provided some mirth—for the man was a priest of Ilmater who was intent on proselytizing about his faith. His religious views could hardly have been more far removed from our bard’s unabashed “get-me-mine” philosophy of life. At the end of the conversation Eldoth mockingly told the priest that, why yes, of course, we would happily give up all our worldly possessions. The poor fellow then trotted off; either deluded that he had converted us, or feigning success in the realization that efforts to convert us seemed clearly futile. Unfortunately we were unable to ask the priest about what dangers he may have encountered in the area.
Our decision now was whether to cross the bridge or to continue along the ridge above the dry river bed. We could see even right at the end of the bridge that fairly substantial but nevertheless rotting lumber served to connect sections of the bridge in several places. It also looked like a location where we might be at risk for no real avenues of escape in the event of an ambush by bandits. The ridge around the river bed certainly looked safer by comparison. We decided to have Coran scout the bridge.
Coran soon returned to tell us that the lumber was stable, but about two thirds of the way along the bridge he spied a young man with a lute strung to his back, whose apparently relaxed demeanor did not suggest any nearby danger—not that such an impression could be taken to mean that there was none, of course. We decided that while this was far from a certain sign of safety, it boded strongly enough in that direction to proceed across the bridge.
However no sooner had we started across the bridge that we were attacked from behind by a slew of zombies! They appeared literally out of nowhere, so I could only surmise that this was a manifestation of the wild magic that plagued the area.
We had darts and arrows readied, so we let fly a volley of those missiles first. But the zombies rapidly closed in, requiring us to switch to hand-to-hand combat weapons—all except Eldoth, that is. Neera and I grabbed our staves, Faldorn her club, and Coran his sword. Eldoth however seemed to feel that the rest of us provided sufficient protection for him to shoot arrows unmolested.
Quick-thinking Neera then smartly used a skillfully aimed scroll of Slippery Earth which slowed most of them and allowed us to destroy them with our ranged weaponry. I did however sustain a fairly deep gash to my forearm, which Neera (to my surprise, though most welcome) rather made a bit of a fuss over.
“Oracos, you made me feel so safe by fighting so bravely fighting by my side!” Neera exclaimed. “But you’re hurt! Please heal yourself right away, okay?” I answered that I had exhausted my healing powers until after we next rested. But I waved off the compliment for use of my staff as ‘simply doing what any man would have done’.
“Well, not every man did,” Faldorn quipped.
Coran smiled and coughed at the barb at Eldoth; and Imoen failed to suppress a grin.
“My arrows were masterfully aimed,” Eldoth responded flatly in his own defense. “I killed four of them.”
“You killed two,” Faldorn rejoined. “Not that it isn’t appreciated…”
“You seem to imply something more, wench,” Eldoth sighed. “But I really don’t care what you feel about it. I was effective and that is all that matters.”
“Is it really?” Faldorn asked serenely.
“Yes. I am nothing if not clever enough to see what needs to be done and achieve my goals.”
“Well, if you say so, bard,” said Faldorn calmly. She then smiled at me. “I agree with Neera, Oracos. You were very brave.” She proceeded to use her last healing spell upon me. Faldorn then asked me “What do you think we should do next Diviner? Was this an omen?”
Neera then grabbed my hand and echoed the same question herself, with sincere curiosity as to what I recommended. “Yes, what should we do?”
As I considered the question, just for the slightest moment I noticed that Eldoth seemed to betray a brief but intense flare of anger in his eyes, which narrowed hard upon Faldorn. However just as quickly his visage relaxed, and he feigned (or so it seemed to me) indifference.
In fact I did feel that Faldorn’s suggestion was correct. It did seem to be an omen.
“Aye, I think we should traverse the ridge instead,” I answered. Eldoth remained quiet at this, and was now otherwise momentarily preoccupied. His attention had shifted to inspecting one of his poisoned arrows, as if he was utterly unconcerned with the decision.
So this was the course we followed. Coran scouted ahead as ever. At one point he spotted more undead shambling about in the ravine below and appeared to have no access to us with a cliff face between us. But due to the unpredictability from the apparent wild magic in the area we slipped past them undetected as a precaution.
With the bridge receding from view we decided to rest, and managed to do so without suffering any sort of attack.
[Here for some reason, from the southeastern corner of the Firewine Bridge map the game engine doesn’t let you connect with the area for Adoy’s enclave. This makes little sense, since the journal entry states Adoy’s home is “east of the Firewine Bridge.” In fact it is actually just south of Firewine on the map. Anyway, I leapfrogged to the area south of Adoy’s area and just pretended that it was a direct connection. I can see no reason why Adoy’s complex should not be accessible from the southern end of the Firewine Bridge map, given the journal entry.]
Thanks! Yeah, this chiding by Faldorn will only embolden Eldoth however. ;-)
Eldoth is wearing the nymph cloak, so I have to be careful not to lose sight of that. His Cha is high to begin with, and wearing the cloak he's at 18. The party can't help but like him. Although I'm roleplaying it that Faldorn by virtue of her connection to Nature, disdain for civilization (with all of its political machinations and silver-tongued devils), and balanced TN comportment is much more immune to his charm than the others (i.e., she can at least see through his charm and maintain her own center). She is also totally mission-focused to investigate the Iron Throne. So to that end, Faldorn must to find a way to inspire Oracos to lead versus Eldoth.
Neera is a wild card here: she is infatuated with Eldoth, and is only giving Oracos attention (and didn't come to Eldoth's support when Faldorn dissed him) in order to try to make Eldoth jealous.
But anyway, despite the tension that just occurred between Faldorn and Eldoth, Coran, Neera, and to some extent even Imoen* are unable to resist a growing sense of Eldoth as the party's emerging leader. Oracos even struggles with it, but he has Faldorn to help him see clearly that Eldoth really cannot be trusted. And Faldorn is working to build Oracos' confidence to prevent Eldoth from assuming leadership.
* Although Imoen is ever loyal to the protagonist, she is still vulnerable to the cloak's influence.
We found the Firewine River upon which Neera had heard Adoy had made his home, and followed it. By nearly dusk the following day we arrived at the entrance to Adoy’s compound. Wagon tracks coursed through a rocky area until there came into view a large pile of wrecked wagons and logs that formed a fortification. There was within this abatis a narrow entrance to permit wagon traffic.
Coran scouted ahead and soon returned to report that there were a great many goblins ahead guarding the narrow entrance. They were equipped with bows.
Presumably this did not bode well for the safety and welfare of Adoy. But Coran observed that the goblins may simply have been hired to guard the complex. Neera observed that given this was the home of a Wild Mage, human guards might also have been shapeshifted by a surge.
Coran offered to see if he could negotiate our entry without a fight. If the attempt failed he could speed away and hide somewhere, and then use his stealth to return to us. Should the goblins be hostile and found us, it was concurred by all that the smartest plan of attack was to use the Sleeping and Terror spells.
Coran slipped away into to growing darkness. Within n a few moments we heard his whistle that all was safe for us to proceed, followed by another which was his signal to move briskly. We advanced to see a goblin leading Coran along the river on the adjacent wagon path. When we caught up to them Coran explained in a hushed voice that the goblin was taking us to see their king.
Our guide seemed to genuinely be goblinkind, but he was however rather friendly. He was proud of a wooden bridge that he and his kind had erected to cross the river, and noted that they had received aid in planning the construction from “Bargrivyek,” a name that seemed vaguely familiar from my studies; but if so I could not quite remember. The goblin pointed to a wooden cage that the goblin explained they used to delight in tormenting a bear. There was no bear inside it at the moment, however. Faldorn arched her eyebrow at this with a most stern expression—and her gaze then trained upon our guide as though searing a hole through the back of the goblin’s head.
The goblin led us to a cave entrance and advised that their “King Rogdok” was to be found inside, bidding that we enter. Upon setting foot inside we could see that a cavernous cave complex had been designed for habitation, with a smithing operation immediately to our left. We were aware that this could all be a trap. So the consensus was that Coran should scout ahead.
[Does anyone think to have Imoen check for traps instead? Black card = no.]
But just as Coran was preparing to scout ahead we were approached by a goblin who was angered that his fellow has permitted us to enter. He called for the others to kill us. Of course we killed him immediately, but now there was the likelihood that his cry to battle had alerted others. Coran snuck around to the left and in but an instant returned to hand-signal that four more were immediately to our left. He conveyed with more hand signals to Imoen that the two of them should sneak up upon their quarry and attack from behind. It was of course understood by all by now that once the battle was joined the rest of us would move in as well.
Imoen delivered a devastating attack on her target, whereas Coran’s missed (perhaps due to his goblin’s startled reaction at the sight of Imoen’s attack). The goblins then turned their bows on Imoen and she took two arrows before we killed them. Imoen used a healing potion in battle, and I healed her further as well.
We decided to make a quick search of the smithing area for clues about what might be going on here. Imoen had the foresight to think of looking for traps. It then dawned that none of us had thought to take that precaution only a moment earlier when Coran took his first step to scout ahead.
As such, Imoen searched for traps and found no clues, other than the goblins were cooking some sort of foul stew with a humanoid skull in it.
Imoen continued to search for traps ahead as she slowly crossed a rickety rope-and-plank bridge that spanned a rushing cave stream. On the other side she discovered a treasure chest with a slain human corpse next to it—so naturally she inspected it for a trap, but there was none. The chest contained a spell scroll with which to detect evil, a potion to sharpen powers of concentration (useful for scribing spells), an enchanted leather armor which would require identification, a wand which required identification, a couple of healing potions, and a good sum of gold.
We decided that we might as well use my two castings of Learn Origin for the leather and wand. The leather was enchanted to improve the ability to hide, and conferred more protection than the studded leather that Coran was wearing. So this item went to him. The wand was one to Panic the enemy, with a good number of charges to it. Eldoth already had such a wand, and I had two castings of the spell memorized. But this could come in handy for whatever lay ahead. We gave it to Neera, that by means of using it the risk of a wild surge would be minimized.
Imoen scouted ahead and quickly returned to report that just ahead were several goblins and hobgoblin guarded a crudely gated entrance to another area of the cave complex.
Our customary plan of attack for such situations was to have Coran sneak up and signal those of us with wizardry skills to creep close enough to cast the Sleeping or Strike Fear spells from a distance, as such catching the enemy unawares. We could see no reason to deviate from that strategy now. It would also be wise to Blind the hobgoblin, I felt. So Eldoth could do that, I would use Slumber and Neera would use the new Panicking wand. However, here Faldorn made a suggestion. She advised that she could cast the Entanglement spell from afar and Coran could lob his two potions of exploding fluid. This might kill them all outright, but the ones who survive would be badly injured and could easily be finished off by our ranged weapons. This would keep our other more customary tactic in reserve for whatever battles await us.
All agreed that this seemed a smart move. So this served as our plan.
Unfortunately, Faldorn was detected by a goblin when she attempted to cast the spell. The enemy began firing their bows at her, and disrupted the spell. The hobgoblin was clearly their leader. He roared in rage at the goblins for failing to prevent us from reaching their location. Coran then opened fire on the hobgoblin with two arrows of ice, and we all leapt to action. Faldorn summoned a dread wolf to attack the hobgoblin, and Eldoth used the spell to rob the hobgoblin’s sight. I cast the Slumbering spell, and Neera used the Panicking wand. Eldoth’s spell had succeeded it seemed, for the hobgoblin was quickly felled. The handful of goblins was easily destroyed.
The hobgoblin had an unusually well-crafted short bow, which we gave to Imoen. He also possessed a bastard sword of exceptional quality (which none of us was trained to use).
Imoen carefully opened the gate to the next area and snuck through to check for traps. She quickly returned to tell us that a portly bald man inside was calmly engaged in scholarly studies in fairly nice living quarters. All concurred that perhaps this may be the man we seek. We decided to approach him and hope for the best.
Just before we entered I decided to cast the scroll of evil detection, however. Sure enough, as Faldorn had warned me, I was able to see Eldoth’s maliciousness revealed. The man before us, however, seemed to have a good heart.
It was in fact Adoy, as he introduced himself as such. Adoy then began to tell us a strange tale of adventure. One day he had inadvertently summoned a tribe of goblins through a surge of wild magic. The goblins were stunned, and believed him to be the goblin deity Bargrivyek, a god who insists on cooperation among goblin tribes. (I did faintly remember reading of this goblin god from a book at Candlekeep.) However a local hobgoblin, Rogdok, who roamed the area discovered the new tribe of goblins. Rogdok thereby investigated Adoy’s cave. He imprisoned Adoy for the purpose of exploiting the goblins belief that Adoy was their god, and as such got the goblins to do his bidding. As such Rogdok forced Adoy declare to the goblins that he was their king.
As Adoy recounted this odd tale, Ekandor and his lackeys teleported into the chamber and demanded both Neera and Adoy for their twisted study. And so an intense battle was joined. The guard accompanying Ekandor included another wizard, a fearsome ogre, and two warriors who appeared to magically summon gargantuan strength.
The battle that followed was rather complex. And so I shall not attempt to relate its every move. But to paint it in broad strokes: Coran quaffed an oil of speed in order to fire his already deadly arrows all the faster. Neera’s wand succeeded in Panicking both Ekandor and the other mage. In addition, Eldoth was able to blind Ekandor. And another heartening development was that I succeeded in using my wand of paralysis on the ogre. Obviously, these successes provided an enormous advantage right from the outset.
Less favorably, Adoy’s first spell created a wild surge that changed him into a squirrel!
Then our luck evened out. The two warriors posed great difficulty. It was well that that Faldorn had summoned a dread wolf, for the creature managed to keep one of them at bay for much of the battle. But even so, these two fighters seemed impervious to our efforts to Blind or Terrify them.
The tide turned, however, when Neera succeeded in Enfeebling one of them. And in another stroke of good fortune, one of them broke his spear. This helped us survive until Eldoth and I eventually were able to use our paralysis wands to stop them.
With all of the enemies thus incapacitated in one form or another, we quickly killed them all. Eldoth used his poison arrows on Ekandor for good measure.
Adoy then returned to human form and finished his tale. Much to Neera’s dismay, Adoy advised that unfortunately he had discovered no method by which to protect against wild magic surges. His advice to Neera: accept the chaotic nature of wild magic, and learn to improvise according to whatever a surge may bring.
Neera was chagrinned by this lack of a solution. But before teleporting away, Adoy gave her a gift of his belt that protects significantly from the chance of being shapeshifted either by a spell or a wild surge. This of course we gave to Neera.
Neera rather pouted about the fact that her quest seemed to have been in vain…
Both Faldorn and I sustained injury, but not to the point of being life-threatening. We each healed ourselves.
Ekandor had worn a Traveler’s Robe that would provide Neera protection against missiles; and that seemed more practical than the one she had been wearing to robe protect from fire. So she donned that garment. And on the way out of the cave Eldoth grabbed a composite longbow from one of the slain goblins, which I suppose he figured was worth the trouble to sell (such bows require more strength than any of us has).
And so we exited Adoy’s cave. The goblins outside were unconcerned about us. I assumed that they were most likely unaware of what had transpired inside.
Faldorn stopped for a moment as we passed by the wooden cage the goblins had made for the bear (where was it, though?). I strongly suspect that she was about to pray to Silvanus regarding whether the goblins should be destroyed. But seeing this, I tugged at her to please keep moving. In so doing, I offered her a look of understanding but which also signaled a plea to the effect of ‘please, just let us get out of there without further incident’. Exhaling a soft sigh of regret, she complied with my unspoken request.
As we left the area Eldoth asked that we visit the Nashkel Fair for him to make a relatively minor purchase, based on conversations he had had with various party members about what could be purchased there. The bard stated he had a plan in mind; but we would just have to trust him for now as to what was. If we would but indulge him this small request, he would reveal all once we had returned to Baldur's Gate.
He had certainly proven himself worthy of such a favor, I felt. The others agreed—except Faldorn who remained silent.
So we headed to Nashkel for a brief respite before making the journey back up the Coast Way to resume our investigation of the Iron Throne.
[In a total of four attempts Oracos died three times in this battle. Interestingly, no one else died—just Oracos. The party managed to neutralize the ogre berserker and two mages in every try. But somehow the fighters always managed to reach Oracos with their spears. In each case it seemed to take forever either for Oracos’ use of a wand of paralyzation, or for consumption of a healing potion to work. In each case Oracos could have fled. But I kind of hoped he would succeed at using the wand or potions rather than running. In any event, despite the fact that I reloaded for PC death three times, I’m pleased that none of the NPCs were slain. It would have been a tough slog to get any fallen party members to the Nashkel temple. And if too many had died, then some might not have gotten resurrected.]
During our journey we stopped for a rest period. And along the way I had a nice conversation with Neera! She is quite full of mischief and likes to keep me guessing at how she feels about me, I think. But I am starting to believe that she likes me… I’m pretty sure she does, anyway! Could it be that she might be interested in me as possibly more than a friend? She herself said time will tell. So I am feeling rather good about things after this.
We arrived at the fairgrounds first. Eldoth said he would be back shortly and headed off on his own. Coran wanted for us to hit one of the gambling tents. So we agreed to accompany Coran there while Eldoth completed his errand.
Coran had some initial success at the dice table that quickly reversed when he started trying his luck at the roulette wheels. Imoen grabbed him after a certain point in his losses, and pulled him out the tent when it was obvious that he was merely siphoning money away.
Eldoth wasn’t gone long and quickly rejoined us. We then walked to town and paid a visit to the weapons store. We sold off a few minor items that we didn’t need such as Coran’s old studded leather, and some gems and jewelry. Coran asked Eldoth where was the bastard sword we had taken from “King Rogdok?” Eldoth smiled and produced 600 gold which he said had gotten for it at one of the merchant tents. (Not a great price, I thought. But fair enough, I suppose.)
We then decided to get a good night’s rest at the inn before pushing north again to Baldur’s Gate.
On the road to Beregost we were ambushed by five bandit archers who surrounded us, which forced all but Neera and me to rush them with melee weapons. I cast Sleep but to no avail. Neera used her Horror wand twice and it worked eventually on all of them. Faldorn also summoned a wolf, although by that time the tide had turned. But both Neera and I took arrows and were actually grievously injured. Eldoth sustained a less serious injury as well. I healed Neera and Eldoth, and Faldorn healed me.
Eldoth insisted on scalping the bandits. However, when we stopped in Beregost there was in fact no buyer for the grisly scalps. Eldoth was determined to see if they might be worth something at the Friendly Arm Inn, but Bentley didn’t want them either. Undeterred, Eldoth insisted that we then try selling them at High Hedge, as he had heard our tales of the exceptional prices that we had gotten there from Thalantyr. We all felt that it wasn’t worth the trouble, but Eldoth was firm that he wanted some tangible compensation for the bandits who very nearly killed us.
Eldoth was so eager to try to make this sale that it seemed pointless to try to dissuade him. By the same token, though, we also felt it would be nice to visit Thalantyr again. So the party agreed.
Approaching the entrance to High Hedge we were attacked by a pack of wild dogs that we were forced to kill.
It came as no surprise to us, but Thalantyr wasn’t interested in the scalps either. The mage explained to Eldoth that news had apparently gotten around that we had decimated the bandit operation, so the Flaming Fist weren’t taking the scalps any longer. Eldoth looked visually perturbed. However, before we left, Eldoth struck up a lengthy, animated conversation with Thalantyr about the Conjurer’s past adventures. The two of them seemed to hit it off rather well, in fact. Most of these were stories that we had had heard before, so we left them to it.
As we left High Hedge Eldoth reluctantly agreed to discard the scalps.
On the journey back to Baldur’s Gate Neera again chatted me up, and we had another discussion that was enjoyable but just slightly disconcerting. She seems to draw me in to express something she’s looking for in response, but then criticizes me when I give the answer that it seemed she was seeking!
Upon arrival in Baldur’s Gate we exhausted, and virtually collapsed at the Elfsong Tavern. The next morning Eldoth seemed in an unusually chipper mood. He suggested that we go directly to Sorcerous Sundries and do some shopping for spells, potions, and anything else that seemed worthwhile. This seemed not a bad idea at all, so the party was up for it.
When we got to the shop it was apparent that something wasn’t right about Eldoth, however. He sold a valuable lightning wand and an expensive start sapphire gem (where on earth had that come from? obtained from his pickpocketing no doubt!) and purchased the Contagion spell—which he had no hope of casting at his experience level. And which he would not be able to cast for quite some time to come, presumably.
I asked him to stop what in the nine hells he was doing, and took a look at our coin purse. The amount seemed roughly to be about right, except for the fact that it did not add up with respect to the transactions that he had just made. We should have had more from the sale of the lightning wand and the gem. I also noticed the potion case among Eldoth’s belongings that we had seen for sale at High Hedge. What was going on?
I confronted him on the spot. “Eldoth, what in world is going on? Why would you make such a purchase? And where did the potion case come from? Have you been making other purchases?”
“You don’t think I can scribe the spell do you. Would you like to make a wager?” Eldoth responded drolly.
“I am positive that you will not be able to, now that you ask.” I replied.
“A wager then! What shall be the stakes?” Eldoth said smugly.
“Stakes?” I asked, hoping that it was a jest. But it was clear that he was serious.
“I really have no idea,” I sighed.
“The winner of the bet shall lead the party in all strategic and tactical decisions for the next tenday, then,” Eldoth answered.
“Very well,” said I. “But I agree only if a condition is attached. Should by some miracle you succeed, you will explain why you are currently doing what you are doing. Because ‘tis most passing strange.”
“Fair enough,” said Eldoth calmly.
To my amazement, Eldoth succeeded in effortlessly scribing the difficult spell!
It then dawned upon me that Eldoth must have imbibed a potion to bolster his powers of concentration. But where did he get one? There were none of those for sale either at High Hedge, or here. And he had not stolen mine. He might have pickpocketed one. But when?
“Eldoth, I bow to your prodigious mental powers,” I said with a faint but unmistakable note of sarcasm. “But you must now fulfill the condition I attached. What in the gods many names are you up to?”
Eldoth then looked genuinely confused for a moment. “I agreed to that?” he asked. And apparently he was sincere.
“Yes, you did,” I answered. “So may we have the answer please? What in blazes is wrong with you?”
“Why I did, yes… I suppose I must answer truthfully then.” Eldoth paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. Then he began a lengthy explanation.
“I did not like it when I was accused of being a coward for simply firing arrows—which, note thee well, just happens to be my strongest martial skill. At any rate, meanwhile I have been watching you repeatedly cast the Sleep spell with next to no effectiveness whatsoever. Did you think to consult with me about what might work better? Of course not…
“Well, the fact is there is a much superior spell that can be used known as Color Spray. I have seen it used most proficiently by many a mage. It occurred to me that you should see a demonstration of it. And in order for me to do that without getting myself killed in battle—since although effective, it does place one in harm’s way—I concluded that I needed some more spells and equipment to protect me in so doing. So I endeavored to gather the needed spells and an amulet.
“It really did no harm, to do this, I feel. I just felt it would be a waste of time to go through the bothersome step of ‘asking permission’.”
“Just what did you purchase?” I asked.
“Let’s see… Color Spray, of course… Armor… a Shield amulet… and a Strength scroll. Some of the other spells I already had gathered: Blur and Mirror Image. Oh, and potion with which I could be assured of scribing all these spells.”
“Wait, which potion is that? What type?” I queried.
“It was a one-of-a-kind potion that Thalantyr had for sale. He said it would be sure to increase my intelligence to astronomical heights in order to scribe anything. He cautioned that there was a downside, which was that it robbed the person of ability to make sound decisions. Which is undoubtedly why I am telling you all of this now, you see. “
“Eldoth!” I exclaimed. “I know of the very potion of which you speak, for we sold it to Thalantyr after having purchased it at the Nashkel fair. You should be weak as a kitten now after having consumed it. How are you able to even move?”
“That’s what I purchased the Strength scroll for,” the bard responded blithely. “Most unfortunately, however… I simply forgot to purchase a potion with which make sensible decisions again. I was exhausted from our long march. And this morning I again failed to think of it when I consumed the potion that guaranteed success in scribing the spells.” Eldoth paused for a moment. Then he continued a bit more deliberately with his speech. “I figured that all I would have to do is take the short walk here and buy a potion to restore my decision-making ability. But it didn’t work.”
At this Drin who had been patiently observing all this from behind the counter burst out into a laugh. “This is the most entertaining show I have seen in a very long time!” He chuckled. Drin added that he loved the theater, but hadn’t had the pleasure of watching a good acting troupe for quite some time. So this pleased him greatly.
“So it seems then that you’re telling us all this now solely because you have no judgment whatsoever? In other words, it is because you’re completely and utterly incapable of any sort of sound decision-making at this moment, correct ?”
“That’s the long and short of it, yes,” said Eldoth. “In a nutshell that is why I’m answering truthfully.”
“But you are also smart as Mystra herself as well at this moment,” I observed.
“Aye. Strange that,” Eldoth replied.
“Are you smart enough to see now that you must let us basically tie you up for the entire day? To keep you—and then by association, the rest of us—out of trouble?” I asked.
“I am,” said Eldoth.
“Do you think you’ll let us do that?” I asked.
“Doesn’t seem too likely,” Eldoth answered.
“Ah! Are you clever enough to see that only the opposite of what you believe would be best is the correct answer?”
“Yes! That is true.”
“Is it the case that what you most truly want is actually not to comply with our request to tie you up?”
“Hmm… yes.”
“So in that case there is no choice but to let us tie you up!”
“I… think that is correct… Yes! It is.”
“You realize that we’re going to have to knock you out first, right?”
“Oof! Really? Is that actually necessary?”
“I’m afraid it is. Will it help if it is Coran who knocks you out?”
“Well, I suppose so.”
At this point Imoen, who had just been speaking quietly with Halbazer, walked behind Eldoth and held a vial to his lips. “Don’t drink this down, Eldoth,” she said.
“Okay!” And then Eldoth proceeded to drain the bottle when she tilted it into his mouth.
Eldoth’s natural demeanor seemed to be restored with the potion of insight he just drank.
“That was dreadful,” he shuddered. “Lest there be any more ‘sharing' I beg of you, please do take me to a room and keep me unconscious until tomorrow.”
Drin then made a suggestion. “That ring you sold me, the Discipliner… I’ll let you have it for 112 gold. Put it on Eldoth, tie him up, and he’ll basically be an imbecile until it is removed. Of course you’ll need a scroll to remove the curse. But that will be cheaper by half than buying three more portions of insight.”
“Very well. That would indeed be both the smartest and wisest thing to do,” Eldoth concurred.
We made those purchases accordingly.
And so we walked Eldoth back to the Elfsong Tavern in order to wait out the effects of the unusual potion he had taken (one full day’s time). Neera held his arm and consoled him, although the bard held his head high. There was little conversation, but many facial expressions were shared by those walking behind him!
[So… Eldoth’s quest to sell the bandit scalps simply provided a convenient ruse; he was actually motivated by his wish to visit the magic shops in order to gather the items he needed to show off his skill at using Color Spray in his competitive relationship with Oracos. And of course the potion that Eldoth drank to guarantee success in scribing the spells was the one originally for sale at the Nashkel fair that raises Int to 25 but also sets both Strength and Wisdom at 3, for 24 hours duration.
A big part of the roleplay came from my own oversight as a player, in that I myself overlooked the 3 Wisdom effect of the potion. When I checked Eldoth’s stats after consuming the potion, I realized that I then had to roleplay him with basically no Wisdom at all—while at the same time being super smart. If we conceive of Wisdom as judgment, or sound decision-making, Eldoth would basically then be doing everything totally wrong in that state from the vantage of what motivates him in his normal condition.
Eldoth had cast Friends before making the transactions at Sorcerous Sundries. So he had Cha 24, Str 18/50 and Int 25... with Wis 3! And especially with the nymph cloak he’s wearing and his pickpocketing ability things could have gotten gigantically out of hand with him. I really didn’t want to have to contend with Flaming Fist Enforcers! So I roleplayed to have some creative fun, but also without too much actual damage from what could easily have ensued from Eldoth in this condition. They would have had to boot him from the party, I’d expect. But I’d rather have him around as a player. So I did sort of shape the events for what I wanted.
While completing Neera’s quest and during this journey back to Baldur’s Gate Coran gained a Fighter level (now Fighter 4/Thief 4) and Neera gained a level as well (to Wild Mage 5).]
As noted in my commentary notes for the above journal entry (blue text), I succumbed to the temptation to shape events according to what I wanted to happen as a player. (Shame on me!) But I think it will be entertaining for Eldoth to demand that Oracos next honor the part of the wager that will now have him (Eldoth) lead the party for the following tenday. If Eldoth had basically run amok through the city with Wis 3, I'm sure the party would have had to cut him loose at some point.
On a related note, this is a vanilla game (I uninstalled SCS to continue this adventure) but I'm experiencing very little success with the Sleep spell, either in vanilla or SCS. Did EE nerf that spell from the original game?
In another game I have going in which SCS was installed it seemed Color Spray has proven consistently way more effective than Sleep. (A Transmuter was the caster if that matters.) The cone or fan of colors was regularly knocking a very substantial percentage of the enemy. Maybe due to possible SCS tweaks? But anyway, in light of how not-so-great the Sleep spell has worked in this vanilla game, it has me wondering.
Then again it could just be that I've been getting lousy dice rolls for Sleep and great dice rolls for Color Spray, and it will eventually even out...
Of course now in Chapter 5, as the action is more funneled into completing the Iron Throne investigation, there aren't going to be as many opportunities to succeed with Color Spray (or Sleep). But Eldoth will be in charge for the next ten days; and re: choosing battles through which to strut his stuff it helps that Eldoth is a bard. It is at least plausible that he would have heard talk of quests in which use of Color Spray would probably shine. And he did have a lengthy conversation with Thalantyr, who may or may not have heard about various quest opportunities in the region (I'd flip a card or roll a die to determine which ones).
The true objective behind Eldoth's plan to demonstrate his battle and tactical prowess is to assume full leadership of the party. He is evil, so he would of course run the party exploitatively, and ultimately selfishly; and of course deceptively as well.
Comments
The journaling takes a lot of time, is one huge downside to it. I mean, it's boilerplate writing--I'm just pounding it out. But still, the game moves at a glacial pace this way.
It definitely increases the feeling of investment with the story and events as they unfold. You get into the heads of the various characters. There is a basic structure and path the that game has to follow, of course. But even within that you're not quite sure where things will lead. E.g., party members will do unexpected things. Die rolls or card flips lead to unexpected (and in some cases unhoped for) results. There's even room for development of subplots and intrigue within the party, etc. So it really is a transformed experience of playing the game for me.
The entire method is summarized here.
Anyway, glad you appreciate the method. It has really been the most immersive experience I have ever had playing this game (and that's saying a lot). :-)
Have just read the summary in the link you sent me. Playing this way must be very immersive indeed (losing gear if party members leave for example). My last playthrough (just completed BG1) with the Cleric/Thief you've already met, suffered because I sped him to the point where he had died in a previous no-reload run, so as to continue his journal on the formus here.
Anyway I'll keep track of your travels as decided by the Fates!
Part I - A Return Visit to the Silvershield Estate
[Game mechanics-wise I had to take the entire party on this burgling and pickpocketing spree by Coran and Eldoth. I just parked the other four party members in the corner of the map and pretended that they're back at the docks map enjoying the ship or sleeping. Ditto for parking them inside the Silvershield mansion. In terms of the narrative only Coran and Eldoth were on this little side adventure.]
The following story was recounted to me the following morn by Eldoth and Coran. During our breakfast at Jopalin's Tavern the party gathered round and listened intently to the tale, masterfully spun by Eldoth to start:
Eldoth related that when he and Coran had formulated their plan the previous day, Eldoth proposed that the two of them return to the Silvershield estate at night for Coran to burglarize it. He added that he had never rummaged through any of the belongings there during the one visit he had made there late at night when Skie had snuck him in, but surely there must be quite a stash of jewelry, gold, and other treasure. Coran agreed that it seemed target worthy of the risk.
Before venturing out into the night, Coran asked Imoen if he could carry our gem bag, which of course Imoen handed to him. (It happened to be empty at that point.)
The duo made their way back to the estate and loitered a few moments across the street from the entrance gate, as if carrying on a casual conversation. Coran handed to Eldoth all of the items in his pack that he could in order to make room for whatever treasure he may find.
With no one else on the street in sight, Coran then slipped into the shadows and passed through the open gate onto the grounds. Naturally, he took great caution to remain hidden. Just ahead Coran spied the same guard who had chased after us earlier in the afternoon. He was stationed right at the mansion’s front door. Coran returned back to Eldoth to report as much, since a bit of magic would evidently be needed to gain access into the building.
Eldoth responded that he knew just what to do. With Coran standing by the entrance but still hidden in the shadows, Eldoth approached the front door to the estate, making sure to keep his hood well over his face. In a relaxed manner Eldoth strolled up the guard, softly singing a ballad of a maid losing her love to the sea. The guard sternly bade him to halt, and demanded that Eldoth pull back his hood and identify himself. Eldoth compliantly stopped, and calmly and reassuringly called out that he posed no threat. He raised both his hands and rotated them slowly, to demonstrate he held no weapons. He asked if he may approach; but at the same time he slowly advanced while appearing to fumble somewhat at untying a drawstring to his hood.
The bard explained that he was able to utter an incantation under his breath as if singing softly, and to also subtly prestidigitate a Charm spell as he made his approach; and by the time he fully removed his hood to reveal his face, the guard had become enchanted to do his bidding.
Bravo! I exclaimed, adding that I was most impressed at Eldoth’s ability to use sleight of hand to spellcast undetected!
[In reality Eldoth used the nymph cloak. He has not shared with the party that he has discovered that the cloak is imbued with the power to Charm at will, simply through the wearer’s intent.]
Eldoth continued that he was cognizant that the guard would remember their encounter once the enchantment had ended. So he advised the guard that this afternoon from the street he had happened to witness a band of six ne’er-do-wells high-tailing it out of the gate in flight. He then advised the guard that he had just spotted a figure that he suspected was a member of that party climbing the estate’s wall with a grappling hook and rope where it joined the city wall to the rear of the mansion. Eldoth urged the guard therefore to hurry back behind the mansion and investigate! It would be best to remain still and hidden there, with his watchful eye fixed on the wall to the estate. In the meantime, Eldoth said, he would hurry to seek out a Flaming Fist guard on patrol for assistance.
And of course with the fellow fully under Eldoth’s enchantment, it did not occur to the hapless guard to do anything but precisely what Eldoth in effect just directed him to do. Eldoth noted that of course he never identified himself. But should he be tied at some point to the burglary and brought in for questioning, this story might hopefully appear credible enough. Eldoth then told that he relocated to just outside of the entrance in order to keep an ear and eye out.
Coran took his turn to recount the next set of events. Beyond the foyer, which was empty, sadly it seemed that within the entire mansion the only room that was left unattended was a great room with a grand piano just to the left of the front door on the first floor. There the elf found some minor gems and a bit of gold. Unfortunately, all the other rooms—including all of the ones adjacent to the stairs on second floor—had people about.
Coran continued that he then opted to venture outside, having noticed a number of chests on the west side of the grounds. There, Coran reported, he found two items of value that Eldoth said will require identification by an expert: a scroll which contained what Eldoth believed were religious glyphs of some sort, and a club with a runic carving. Eldoth commented that he believed that the scroll likely provided divine protection but it was not within his ability to decipher. Similarly, the meaning to the carving on the club was unknown to him.
The two of them paused from the tale so that the elf could pull out the oaken cudgel from his pack and hand it to Faldorn. Upon inspecting it, the druidess silently shook her head that she also did not recognize what type of symbols were carved into it. However she closed her eyes momentarily and appeared to offer a silent prayer, likely in reverence for the material it was made of.
Eldoth then picked up the story again by recounting that the two of them next traveled due east and paid a visit to... the Ducal Palace! This elicited a gasp from Neera and a laugh from Imoen. Eldoth next held us in genuine suspense for a time as he described the magnificent palace, and detailed the various points of access as they scanned it visually seeking a possible way in. The bard then paused for dramatic effect, with the party on the edge of their seats in expectation of a hair-raising tale of burglary inside no less than the very seat of government for the great city-state of Baldur’s Gate…
But Eldoth then glumly admitted there appeared not the slightest chance of gaining entry there! The party groaned and chuckled. Imoen gave Eldoth a good natured shove, and then patted both Eldoth and Coran on their backs for even having considered such a bold scheme.
The bard continued that they were however far from done for the night. Eldoth knew of an impressive wizard’s tower very nearby occupied by a wizard named Ramazith. A splendid looking tower it is; and in fact it is one of the city’s more impressive features of the skyline by day, he noted. And Coran nodded in agreement.
The two of them therefore made their way through a long alley along the eastern side of the Ducal Palace, and eventually emerged onto the street again at Ramazith’s tower. This tower should hold great magical treasure, they both knew.
Eldoth then told that it had begun to rain as they traversed the alley; and that helped clear the streets so that Coran could approach the tower without anyone noticing him. Coran chimed in that he took the rain as a favorable sign from Tymora.
Coran then approached the front door to the tower and picked the lock, to disappear inside. And at this point the telling of the tale passed again to Coran.
[Does Coran have access to get to spiral stairs undetected? I.e., specifically, is Ramazith facing away from the front door engrossed in a book such that Coran may slip past him up the stairs unseen? Result = red card. Yes, Coran may advance undetected.]
Coran continued the tale, telling that when he carefully and everso slowly opened the door and peered in, he saw the wizard with his back turned at the other end of the circular room. He noted that the living quarters there were well appointed—obviously a good sign for potential treasure. It helped that the central spiral staircase in the middle of the floor offered Coran cover. So Coran slipped inside and quickly darted up the stairs.
On the next level, Coran told us, were some mustard jellies. These slow moving creatures posed little hazard to our speedy thief. Unfortunately there were no obvious storage containers for treasure on this level—just recessed shelving along the walls.
Coran ascended the stairs on that second floor to peer into the next level up. And there he spotted a number of terrifying ghasts shambling about. He noted also that on this level was a strange garden that encircled the central staircase, offering him some cover. Coran could not see all of the monsters. But between the ones he could spot visually and following the wheezing groans and shuffling of feet outside of his view, he estimated their number to be possibly around half a dozen.
There was a substantial chance that he could be spotted by at least one of the creatures once he traveled high enough onto the twisting stairs to peek up into the next floor. But Coran figured the risk was worth taking. So he stole up the stairs to gaze into the next level. There he spotted hobgoblins, and by the looks of them possibly elite warriors at that.
[While Coran is spying into the next level does he get spotted by one of the ghasts? Result = red card. Yes, Coran is spotted. Coran is therefore unstealthed because a ghast spots him.]
Then, Coran said, much to his chagrin one of the ghasts caught sight of him. Coran said that at that moment he had no choice but to quaff a potion to make him invisible.
Now that he was invisible it made sense to scout the entire tower, Coran observed.
He continued upward and noted that on the next level was another circular garden surrounding the staircase. So once again he had a bit of cover. And sure enough, about half a dozen hobgoblins roamed about there. As with the floor below, this level also contained only recessed wall shelves, and no containers.
Coran said he surveyed the room in but a glance, as he was anxious that the ghast that had spotted him would think to journey upward to investigate. And if his sighting was communicated to the hobgoblins, there was the risk that one of the hobgoblins could be a spellcaster who might make him visible again. So Coran told us that without delay he sped upward to the next level.
On the fourth floor Coran recounted that an even denser garden surrounded the staircase, obscuring his view. But through it he could hear the yips, growls, and gurgles of kobolds. Even just the memory of the sound of their clawed feet scratching on the marble floor gave him slight chills now, he said. From the looks of their armor and bows they were likely an elite detail, Coran added.
Coran said he felt it urgent to keep moving as fast as he could to try to find any treasure at all in the heavily guarded tower.
Up to the next floor Coran ran. And there he found the top of the tower, and Ramazith’s study. A locked desk concerned Coran that it may be trapped but he placed his faith in Tymora and picked the lock in a flash, nevertheless wincing as he opened the desk. To his relief it was not trapped. There Coran found a wand, a hefty sum of gold, a scroll, and an elixir of health, and four scrolls. He hastily looked through the numerous book shelves and found an impressive and rather heavy tome that was likely valuable. Also among the shelves he gathered a number of spell scrolls.
Coran felt that any moment a small army of ghasts, hobgoblins, kobolds—and perhaps even Ramazith himself—would burst up the stairs. So as quickly as he could loot the floor, he drank down the remaining potion of invisibility that he had.
Down the stairs Coran sped.
[Has Ramazith been notified of the intrusion by a ghast? Result = red card. Yes, Ramazith is aware there is an intruder in his tower. From a roleplay standpoint I feel Ramazith would use Improved Invisibility and remain on the first floor, which he does have memorized. He is visible though, of course, per the game engine.]
Unfortunately Coran now found that three monsters were stationed right at the door, barring his exit. Ramazith was then nowhere to be seen. A ghast, a kobold, and a hobgoblin stood between Coran and his escape. And the two living creatures among the trio of sentries had the look of veteran warriors.
Coran told us that he then went back up to the next level for a moment to take a moment to consider his options. He concluded that the only question at that point was whether to take any potions prior to fighting his way out. He said he didn’t wrestle with it long, and deemed it most prudent to withhold use of any potions until he was absolutely sure he needed to use them.
The elf then prepared an ice arrow and got the other six of them positioned in his quiver ready to draw. He steeled himself with a prayer to Tymora. And down he snuck, still invisible of course. Taking position at the end of the room opposite the door, Coran loosed an ice arrow at the heart of the ghast.
Naturally, given Coran's great skill with the bow, his arrow squarely hit the mark. But it did not kill the creature instantly.
Then Ramazith suddenly appeared! He sneered that given that Coran was feeling so bold as to burgle his residence then why not follow him to the top of tower? The wizard disappeared again just as instantaneously.
Coran was however distracted from Ramazith’s taunt. He was taking arrows of both poison and fire from the other two enemies at the door! And in fact Coran got quite badly injured by one of each type of arrow striking him simultaneously.
Coran related that he was next able to fire another arrow of ice at the ghast; which to his relief killed the creature—for he knew that if that ghast had reached and touched him, he would be paralyzed. And if that happened he was then sure to die.
Our thief then quickly imbibed an antidote to stop the poison from the hobgoblin’s arrow. He then killed the kobold with one arrow and the hobgoblin with two.
By the end of the battle, however, Coran was faint and nearly collapsed. He used both potions of healing that he had with him to restore himself to nearly full vigor.
Coran finished this portion of the tale by reporting that he quickly looted the slain creatures’ corpses and then stole out of the tower as fast as he could. He was hardly keen on the notion of fighting an advanced wizard with a small army of monsters!
[With this encounter Faldorn leveled-up to Druid 4. She thereby gains one extra spell slot each for level 1 and 2 spells. And she adds a proficiency in Quarterstaff.]
Meeting Eldoth across the street in the alley Coran reported the events. Eldoth examined the treasure from the burglary and was able to identify but two items: yet another wand that paralyzes ("Very nice!" I exclaimed, as Eldoth handed it to me) and a couple of arrows that cause flame damage from the kobold (Coran would use these).
There were a number of spell scrolls that Eldoth of course knew well. But four of them he had but a vague idea about, and could not be certain enough about what they were to attempt to use them.
Eldoth showed Neera and me the spell scrolls. We were pleased to find a number of useful spells among them. There was a spell to make the body appear as an indistinct blur; a spell to become invisible; a spell to project a duplicate image of the caster; and a spell to make the target temporarily blind.
The spell to cause Blindness would be good for Neera to learn, I noted. She nodded in agreement. The remainder of the known spell scrolls might be more appropriate for Eldoth it was agreed between the three of us arcane casters. The other scrolls looked like protection scrolls, Eldoth was all but certain. He just could not decipher them. We would have to get them identified by Drin or Silence.
“Aren’t you forgetting something, Eldoth?” Coran asked. Eldoth smiled a bit wearily and slowly withdrew a very handsomely bound tome from his pack. “Yes, yes, here it is,” Eldoth said with a slight tone of wistfulness.
I could see why the bard wanted to hold onto the book for himself. It looked to be of great value, written in a coded script I had never seen. This item too would require expert identification.
“So what happened next, Eldoth?” Neera asked with genuine enthusiasm, clearly entranced by the tale. Despite the fact that Neera’s infatuation with Eldoth bothered me, I had to admit that I too was eager to know.
“Well,” said Eldoth, "Next we paid a visit to a place that of course Coran knows quite well, and I had never been, but I fear might make you blush” he said with an air of mischief. Neera looked puzzled. Coran laughed at Neera’s expression and made a rejoinder. “A place you have never visited? My friends, please—it is Eldoth’s home away from home!” he chortled.
“True,” said the bard. “Though not merely for reasons of pleasure but rather for work—“ at which point Eldoth was interrupted by another burst of laughter from Coran, who coltishly bumped his shoulder into Imoen's in mirth at what Eldoth had said. “A bard must choose his words well, and here you have not my friend!” Coran laughed. “For next we visited the Undercellar!”
Eldoth beamed a closed-lipped, broad smile back at Coran, with just a hint of playful malice. “No, not that kind of work, thou most lecherous elf,” said Eldoth. Eldoth grinned impishly at Neera for a moment and continued, “Please forgive our friend’s ribald sense of humor… of course I’m referring to the work of a cutpurse, not a harlot.”
“Ooh” said Neera bashfully—although apparently more from a history of being removed from city life than from modesty. She commented briefly that the concept of prostitution is rather alien to her from her upbringing in the High Forest. Faldorn smiled affirmatively to her in support, but remained silent and cryptic as ever.
“Praytell, do continue,” said I, as I admit I was as curious to hear the next chapter of this adventure as Imoen and Neera were.
Eldoth continued that the entrance to the infamous Undercellar was a relatively short distance to the east, in the rear of a tavern named the Blushing Mermaid. The objective here would be for Eldoth to relieve as many patrons of their coin purses and other valuables as possible. Before entering the establishment our two rogues discussed the basic strategy. For the apparently easy targets Eldoth could work alone. But for those that appeared to pose a possible greater challenge, Coran would distract the mark by initiating conversation and/or clumsily getting in their way. Eldoth would consume a potion that increased his dexterity to an extraordinary level (he had three of them). And if he felt he needed an even higher level of assurance to succeed with a pick he would cast the spell that briefly gave him the favor of Tymora.
The pair noted that their backpacks were getting rather full. It was agreed that Eldoth should finally throw away the bandit scalps he had taken, as no buyers had been found for them. They could manage for now without some of the more mundane equipment they were carrying, which was easily replaceable for little cost—things such as standard arrows, sling bullets, Coran’s buckler, Eldoth’s chainmail, and so forth. These items they discarded into a trash barrel on the street.
And thus, Eldoth recounted, prior to entering the tavern he consumed a potion to improve his cutpurse skills. And they entered the pub.
Immediately upon setting foot inside the establishment they were accosted by a massive ogre brandishing an enormous spiked morning star, who accused Eldoth of being tied with the party of Oracos, as he could clearly see the resemblance from a wanted poster he had. (Now we all had wanted posters displaying our likenesses? That was disturbing.) Eldoth used his cunning to trick the lumbering beast into doubting the poster’s physical description; for he said he had heard that the party of Oracos was in fact a band of terrifying demons with glowing eyes! Therefore, best the ogre bounty hunter check the description on the poster again!
Likely the combination of the effects of Eldoth’s cloak along with the creature’s less-than-facile mind made this seem a perfectly reasonable notion to him. The ogre then felt an urge to go find the wanted poster that he had evidently left somewhere else in order to study it again. However, as the creature tried to leave the tavern, Coran tried to engage him in further conversation, blocking his exit path; and that gave Eldoth the opportunity to deftly remove a number of items from the giant’s pack and belt. The three items Eldoth picked were: a pair of apparently enchanted bracers, a spell scroll with which to open any lock, and a sphene gem.
Once inside the tavern it was apparent that it was filled with poorer commoner patrons, unlikely to be carrying enough coin or items to be worth the bother. So the two of them continued to the rear of the establishment, and passed through the door down into the Undercellar.
[Note: I roleplayed that their basic stance on locked chests in heavily trafficked areas such as taverns is that it is smartest not to attempt to steal from them (and indeed when one does the game engine runs a script that one is spotted). So they do not attempt to steal from the chest in the room with the door to the Undercellar. The guest rooms at an inn seem more reasonable targets, however; so they will attempt to hit containers in patrons' rooms.]
“Eldoth, can you tell us a little more about the Undercellar?” Imoen asked. Neera and I too added that we were curious to know more of it.
“In a nutshell, it is a place that nobles engage in pleasures of the flesh—in just about any manner one might conceive,” Eldoth replied. “Many wear masks there, although anyone who knows them would have little difficulty discerning who they are,” he added. “It is a very extensive cellar with many rooms for courtesans and their customers.”
Eldoth added that the Undercellar also connects to a vast sewer system beneath the city.
“Many of the nobles are smart enough not to bring anything of great value with them down there,” Eldoth continued. “But there are always those that have their purses filled to enjoy a night on the town, and go there on a lark.” Eldoth also explained that he regularly pays off the local Thieves Guild member Niklos to be allowed to pick there occasionally, but he must take care not to overdo it.
The place itself is dank and crumbling in places, he said; but for the nobles that seems to heighten the adventure.
Eldoth and Coran made a slow stroll through the Undercellar, keeping an eye out for potential marks that may be visible in any of the rooms that offered a glimpse from curtains not pulled entirely closed.
[Does Eldoth spot Quenash wearing the Cloak of Balduran? Result = red card. Yes, he notices the courtesan Quenash wearing a lavish cloak.]
Just off the center lounge area of the Undercellar, Eldoth recounted, he spotted a woman who was draped in a conspicuously fine, gold embroidered cloak. He at first believed her to be a noble due to the finery of the garment. But upon closer inspection he concluded that she was in fact a courtesan, though not one with whom he was familiar. Perhaps the cloak was a gift from a customer, he mused. It would without a doubt fetch a good sum of money in a city like this, Eldoth felt.
“You would steal from a workin’ girl?” exclaimed Imoen in exasperation.
Eldoth attempted to placate Imoen by responding that the Undercellar’s courtesans were themselves hardly exemplars of moral behavior. “They steal from each other! And sometimes they do so from each other’s customers. It happens all the time, believe me.” The explanation did not sit well with Imoen, however. Her face soured a bit into a harder expression at him as he continued, although it gradually relaxed again as the bard continued with the tale.
Eldoth noted that he made a mental note to return to the courtesan wearing the fine cloak. But first he and Coran made the circuit throughout the cellar. In some cases Eldoth brushed by a noble to see if he could make a pick. But for a couple of them who looked more wary, he signaled to Coran to distract them by speaking to them as Eldoth made his pass. None of them had anything of particular value, perhaps having paid in advance, Eldoth said.
Eldoth noted that for one of the attempts he became concerned that the noble had detected it, but he managed to strike up conversation with him in a manner that put him at ease.
[Actually, Eldoth’s attempt at pickpocketing failed here, even though his skill is at 95! I had him attempt to pickpocket on several nobles for RP value, although I was aware that they had no items. If one of them had gone hostile and called for the bouncer, then I would have had them flee into the sewers. Eldoth therefore used a charge from the nymph’s cloak preventatively, as from a RP vantage such a customer could easily go complain to the bouncer at the door. Of course Eldoth does not share that part, however.]
Our bard noted that based on that experience, he decided to cast his Blessings of Tymora spell on himself before attempting to lift the courtesan’s fine cloak. Then he and Coran went to chat her up. She was surprisingly surly toward Coran… perhaps she had no fondness for elves? But Coran who acted hurt and distressed from being so soundly rebuffed managed to distract the woman such that that Eldoth could reach from behind and unclasp the cloak without her seeing or feeling it. Eldoth then left the room in the direction directly behind her with cloak in hand, in a single move slipping it into his pack.
The two of them then both were aware that they should make a hasty exit, for it would likely not be long before the courtesan noticed the theft. They both figured the smartest choice for them then was to abscond from the Undercellar via the sewers; although both admitted that neither of them knew the labyrinth of sewer tunnels well… Plus they were putrid and foul! In any event, they would have to tolerate the sewer’s filth and stench but for a short distance only, hopefully, in order to resurface as soon as they could find a way up again.
[The easternmost door to the sewers is not accessible at this time. Flip card for which exit to use, where red = north door and black = west door. Result = red card. They exit into the sewers via the north corridor.]
Eldoth told that while it probably had been prudent for them to use the sewers, they were forced to travel much farther than either of them bargained for. Before finally coming to a ladder back up to a grate on the street above, they discovered several bloated remains of human bodies there, which appear to have been conveniently dumped there. Under such a circumstance it seemed little doubt but that they were murder victims. In all events, they were relieved to at last emerge from the sewers, Eldoth said.
At this point Eldoth produced the cloak from his pack. It immediately elicited coos from Neera and Imoen for its attractiveness. It was indeed a very fine garment: made of a dark gray silvery velvet with gold embroidery, and inside an insignia that Eldoth commented he believed to be the mark of the legendary founder of the city, none other than Balduran. That in itself was perhaps not so remarkable, Eldoth noted; for indeed the city is named after the legendary seafaring captain. But he continued that based on obscure marking around the insignia he believed that this particular cloak may be imbued with enchantments. It would therefore behoove us to have it inspected by an expert in item identification as well, he observed.
At any rate, Eldoth continued their story of their escapade the night before. Coran’s and Eldoth’s exit from the sewers brought the pair back to the docks region.
[Where to next? Further pickpocketing/burglary locations could include the following taverns: Helm and Cloak, Three Old Kegs, Elfsong Tavern, Blade and Stars, and the Splurging Sturgeon. However of the five taverns it looks like only the Helm and Cloak and Elfsong Tavern offer worthwhile rewards from the meta-game standpoint. So to increase fun value I’ll limit the selection to those two tavern inns, i.e., flip a card for which of those two locations to visit, such that red card = Helm and Cloak and black card = Elfsong Tavern. Result = black card. They will visit the Elfsong Tavern next.]
Eldoth then told that they still had a good bit of time to visit one or two more locations before daybreak where they might yet pick up some treasure. He recommended that they pay a visit to the Elfsong Tavern. Coran offered no objection. So off the duo went to see what larcenous opportunities might present themselves there.
Could Eldoth and Coran enter the sewers without having to gather their party before venturing forth? That would be a surprise to me.
Have you considered having the party take on the Thieves Guild missions at this point? Maybe the guild takes notice of Coran and Eldoth's activities and that could be a story based way to draw them in? Just an idea.
I look forward to the further adventures of Oracos and friends!
The party's personality and alignment breakdown supports Eldoth's and Coran's spree, I think. Imoen is the only one who might be morally troubled by it, but she is a) herself a thief! and, b) ever loyal to the PC, deferring to him. And Faldorn sees them all as corrupted by civilization to begin with.
Oracos, by now, at this stage of this (for him) strange and bewildering journey, is really kind of willing to go with the flow because none of what's happening makes any sense to begin with. Another contributing factor is that Eldoth is wearing the nymph cloak (giving him 18 Cha) and has essentially been acting as party leader.
Oracos with a Cha of 10, according to temperament is not instinctively inclined to seek the reigns of leadership. Here he's also surrounded by a lot of Cha personalities (even Neera's is higher). It's actually a minor miracle that anyone has allowed him to have the final say or deferred to his judgment all throughout the adventure. But I'm RPing that Oracos has supposed authority as an "expert" via Divination (the spells in the game don't give me much to work with, so it's by runecasting, augury, and most recently the stars, etc.).
The Thieves Guild quest has occurred to me too, and it could certainly happen. It could be RPed, for sure. But I think may be most fun to flip a card for whether it does happen...
One big consideration I have is that I can only enjoy this game for three weeks at a time quarterly throughout the year; and this current period of activity is coming to an end this coming Sunday. Then I'll be away from the project for another ten weeks while I'm hitting the books again in RL. I was sort of hoping to get the party back to Candlekeep before taking the next hiatus from the game. But another way of looking at it is that Chapter 5 is the last hurrah for wide open exploration (from a RP vantage) until the next set of events start funneling the action more narrowly toward resolution of the plot. So maybe I should just take my time and enjoy BG city a little more.
Beyond the Thieve's Guild (which would be forced upon them RP-wise) I think Oracos would want to complete Scar's mission, though. Also, Faldorn would press them to continue with the investigation of the Iron Throne. She's tolerating this current excursion by Eldoth and Coran because it's sidetracking them for only a couple of days, and it actually does make some sense to gather more coin as well. Anyway, I dunno, I'll have to see how it goes. :-)
Actually, the tension between Eldoth (as wearer of the nymph cloak) wanting to exploit this party to increase his own wealth versus Faldorn's imperative to get on with the investigation of the Iron Throne is a roleplayed element of the game that is currently gathering a bit of steam...
I'm at a sort of interesting roleplaying juncture, whereupon at the temple of Gond, completing Brevlik's quest to steal the telescope, I'm asking myself: would Coran loot the coffers of a temple of Gond?
I'm really not sure what he would do there... One would think that such an action would anger the deity, of course--which is a strong deterrent. But then again, what is the worst that is likely to happen from garnering the ire of such a deity, whose portfolio is basically about crafting? (Actually, Eldoth crafts his own poisoned arrows, and there could be some spillover to him. But that gets more complicated to implement than I really want to go through for the trouble.)
Coran could always rationalize to himself that he might make things right with a donation to the temple somewhere down the road... But by the same token, the gems in question are highly valuable: star sapphire = 2000 gp and rogue stone = 2500 gp. So that's a lot of coin to make up for at some future point! (If he sincerely wants to try to make things right with Gond eventually, at least in his mind.)
Incidentally, there's no particular relationship between Coran's favorite deity, Tymora, and Gond.
I could flip a card for it, of course. But any thoughts about whether theft of gems that are ostensibly offerings to the Gondian temple is something Coran would do?
On the other hand he doesn't seem to be very pious and he likes to outwit others, and I can see him accepting the challenge if sufficiently provoked (Eldoth: 'I bet you wouldn't dare loot the coffers of the Temple of Gond.' Coran: 'Oh no? I'll have your poisoned arrows for the next ten days if I don't.')
But... here Coran's activity is currently out of sight/our of mind for Eldoth. Because Eldoth is back at the door keeping a lookout. I.e., he and Coran are out of perception range. So it really is up to Coran, as to whether he'll pick those locks and steal the contents.
Because of the relatively low traffic for this subforum and limited time to play today, I'm going to raise this in General where more people might actually see it and weigh in. Please continue this particular discussion here:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/31318/roleplaying-question-should-and-would-a-thief-anger-a-god?new=1
Eldoth told us a bit of the history and ambience of the tavern. It got its name from being haunted by the ghost of a maiden who can be faintly (but clearly) heard singing about having lost her lover to a great storm at sea. Eldoth sang a bit of it for us, and it was indeed a beautiful melody, and moving. Eldoth continued that the tavern was a favorite haunt of all manner of brigand and thief. It was a rather dangerous place to attempt his cutpurse skills, as no mercy whatsoever would be shown by the guards.
The improved pickpocketing ability from the potion that Eldoth had taken earlier in the evening was however still in effect, Eldoth reported. So he had a bit of confidence about his chances.
Eldoth and Coran entered the Elfsong Tavern and soon spotted their first mark. It was a gnome with a bit of a lost look to him, who stood in the center of the floor as if possibly awaiting someone; for he appeared to study everyone who entered the door. Coran introduced himself to the little fellow and began chatting as a means of distraction, Eldoth said.
The fellow’s name was Brevlick, and he wished to hire a thief to steal a particular item for him.
The gnome displayed such a conspicuous lack of confidence that it inspired Coran to squeeze a bit of gold from him simply to hear the offer (which prompted Imoen to bat Coran with her hand in a scolding gesture, and Coran responding with a ‘hey, what!?’ facial expression). Brevlik asked us if he would be willing to attempt to steal a mechanical device that he coveted which is on display at the Hall of Wonders, the museum for the city’s lavish temple of Gond. The item is an invention from the gnomish isle of Lantan, Brevlik explained. It uses curved glass to see things far away as if they were close—which should indeed be a valuable item indeed, Eldoth noted. Brevlik offered 500 gold plus a magical item if we could bring him the “Golden Extra-Farseer.” As to the magical item Brevlik would include as payment, he would not specify what it was. But he promised that it would be an item of real value.
Eldoth said that they accepted the offer. But as Brevlik and Coran chatted Eldoth lifted from him a wand that shoots bolts of lightning and a magical ring of some sort. The ring would have to be identified, he added.
The prospect of stealing something from the House of Wonders seemed nigh but impossible, Eldoth added. But the proposal seemed just enough worth the trouble for them to go there and take a look.
[Eldoth made a third pickpocket attempt and it failed, but he again used the nymph cloak to Charm Brevlik before he went hostile. I moved Brevlik to a side room, since he has then finally contracted a thief and via the roleplay would be likely to take a seat to wait for their return. Anyway, Eldoth keeps this pickpocketing failure to himself (and as mentioned he has also kept the cloak’s powers secret). I’ll be curious to see whether Brevlik will be hostile when they return to speak with him later.]
The duo found no other promising targets for pickpocketing on the first floor. So they paid a visit to the tavern’s second floor. There the first potential mark they saw was an imposing man who looked possibly to be a Norheim brigand or sell-sword. If the pickpocket failed, they could well have a serious fight on their hands. The warrior was holding in his hand a well-crafted bastard sword. On the other hand, the fellow looked to be somewhat inebriated which might make the pick easier, Eldoth said.
They decided to target this fellow last, Eldith stated. If the attempt to lift his sword failed and they had to flee, they would at least by then have relieved the other patrons of their valuables beforehand.
The other two potential targets were however even riskier. One was the proprietress Alyth—and it was a very bad idea to attempt to pickpocket her. The other was a merchant, who, especially in the environment of the Elfsong was in a naturally wary state. They spoke with him to examine his wares, and he actually had a few things of interest: mainly enchanted amulets, though the prices were too high for the value they would bring to our party.
So it was decided that next they would attempt to relieve the warrior of the heavy burden of his bastard sword, Eldoth smiled. However after talking with him a bit it was apparent that he was extremely wary, and unlikely to relax his grip onto the sword.
[Note: per the game engine the target had no items that a cut-purse of Eldoth’s skill—and he was at 95 in pickpocketing—could steal.]
Eldoth and Coran eventually decided to head over to the House of Wonders to see about the item that Brevlik wanted.
The House of Wonders , Eldoth told us, was a truly remarkable and indeed wondrous place, full of intriguing mechanical inventions crafted by followers of Gond. The Gondian clergy keeps the place dimly lit by use of hovering glowing orbs—which although impractical from a security standpoint nevertheless celebrate Gondian craftsmanship. Eldoth stated that the temple is closed at night, and there was no telling whether a way in could be found.
When they got to the temple, they discovered that the main entrance lock had already been skillfully picked! So there was likely a thief already inside. Perhaps, Brevlik had made the same proposal to a number of rogues.
The two of them cautiously entered, Eldoth continued. Coran then told the next set of events.
Coran stealthily crept ahead to investigate, and he came upon a rather cheerful halfing lass who was just about to make an attempt at picking a lock to a display cabinet, startling her. The hin was a friendly and trusting sort, perhaps to a fault. She lamented not having anyone to team up with in her burglary exploits. So she offered to stand as a lookout, but didn’t even try to bargain beforehand for a cut of the loot. She looked a fair bit of desperate to make a new friend, Coran observed. Coran said and he found himself feeling somewhat sorry for her (no surprise that, as Coran seems a good-natured fellow by natural disposition).
Coran said he therefore trusted Tymora in this instance and allowed her to keep a lookout, as he proceeded to steal the Golden Extra-Farseer device. That task competed, the halfling introduced herself as Alora; and she asked if she might join Coran in his travels. Coran said he responded to Alora that he was working with someone else, and the decision was not his to make; but if she could tell him where she might be found in the future, perhaps she might join the party at a later date. The halfling was excited by this prospect, and stated that she could usually be found in the Lady’s House, the temple of Tymora directly across the street. Alora did not ask for any compensation for having stood watch for a few moments. She seemed content with the future prospect of joining a party of adventurers.
Our elven thief said he thanked her and bid the hin lass a good eve, and thereupon she stealthily slipped into the shadows and absconded from the temple. Eldoth didn’t even notice her slip by, Coran laughed, getting in a good-natured barb at Eldoth; to which Eldoth responded with a light-hearted smirk.
[Here I had to do a workaround with the game engine mechanics. I temporarily added Alora/removed Imoen. Immy was in the corner of the map with the rest of the part; but per the roleplay, the rest of the party is not actually there. I then Ctrl+J’ed the party to the temple of Tymora and had them enter, and inside the temple dropped Alora. Upon exiting the temple I Ctrl+J’ed the party back to the corner of the map where Imoen stood, and re-added her. Then I Ctrl+J’ed Eldoth and Coran back to the temple of God and had them enter again. I repositioned Coran at the spot where he encountered Alora, and Eldoth right next to the door but out of perception range of Coran. Then the game resumed.
Coran then notices the locked coffers to Gond lining the temple wall and he is seized with the impulse to help himself to the treasure there. Coran deliberates a moment… and not whether such an action would anger Gond, since (he believes) it surely would…. but rather should it be a worthwhile risk to take. He could always make amends later to Gond, he muses…
Does Coran loot the temple’s coffers? Result = red card. Yes. Coran gives in to the temptation to raid the coffers. He picks the locks and finds a rogue stone and star sapphire gem, which he grabs.
The star sapphire Coran gives to Eldoth as special compensation for conceiving the plan. Coran keeps the rogue stone for himself, although Coran keeps mum about it.
Eldoth asks Coran if there was any more treasure than the star sapphire, and Coran responds that there was in fact one other gem of roughly the same value, that Coran will keep. This is more or less accurate, as a star sapphire is worth 2000 gp, and a rogue stone fetches 2500 gp.
Eldoth mulls whether to prod him for more information. But he decides he can tolerate not knowing precisely what the treasure is, so he elects not to pressure Coran for any more information about the elf’s share of the loot from the coffers.]
Eldoth then continued the tale. The two of them went first to se Halbazer Drin to see if he was interested in purchasing the item. Once at Sorcerous Sundries they showed Drin the Golden Extra-Farseer. Eldoth explained that a halfling lass had sold it to them for one thousand gold, and he now regretted the purchase.
[Here Drin could either a) not be aware that such an item was on display at the Hall of Wonders, or b) even if he is and suspects the item to be stolen, he may wish to recover it for the temple at a modest profit for himself. I will roleplay that he is potentially willing to make a trade from the items in his store for the telescope.
Does Drin offer a trade? Result: red card = yes. And as such he will offer from among the following list of items:
1) 3 Darts of Wounding
2) 1 Potion of Hill Giant Strength
3) 1 Potion of Absorption
4) 1 Oil of Speed
5) 1 Potion of Insight
6) 1 Potion of Strength
7) 1 Scroll of Know Alignment
8) 1 Scroll of Color Spray
9) 1 Scroll of Identify
10) 1 Scroll of Detect Invisibility
11) 1 Scroll of Web
12) 1 Scroll of Contagion
13) 1 Scroll of Slow
14) 1 Scroll of Skull Trap
15) 1 Scroll of Remove Curse
16) 1 Scroll of Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere
17) 1 Scroll of Spirit Armor
18) 1 Scroll of Polymorph Self
19) 1 Scroll of Protection from Undead
20) 1 Wand of Frost
Accordingly, roll 1d20 for the item that is offered. Result: 16. Drin offers to trade a scroll of Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere for the telescope.]
Halbazer Drin studied the item for a rather long period of time, without saying a word. He seemed to be mulling something. He finally looked up, and stated simply that he would offer to trade of a spell scroll for the spyglass. The spell he wished to trade encases the target in a sphere of magical energy that protects the occupant from any spell, but also prevents him or her from acting on the surrounding world (design of the spell is credited to a wizard named Otiluke, he said).
In its value in gold, the spell scroll matched Brevlik’s offer for coin—although Brevlik had offered to sweeten the pot with another magical item as well. Eldoth related that he then explored whether Drin make consider a trade for some other items in his store, but Drin refused to entertain them.
Coran and Eldoth stepped away to confer with one another, and decided that they would simply cash in the item with Brevlik since he was probably the most strongly “motivated” buyer that they would find.
Eldoth told next that they returned to the Elfsong to complete the transaction with Brevlik. They found the gnome at a table in a side room, and he was quite excited to see them. Brevlik was ecstatic to obtain the Farseer, paid the 500 gold, and, as promised gave them an additional magical item.
[Since Eldoth already pickpocketed Brevlik’s lightning wand, he will offer something else of comparable value from the following list (thanks to BGEE forum member jacobtan for suggesting this from the 2nd edition DMG, based on XP required for wizard item crafting, slightly modified by me):
1) Ring of Protection +2
2) Ring of Wizardry
3) Wand of Fear
4) Wand of Magic Missiles
5) Wand of Polymorphing
6) Cloak of Displacement
7) Cloak of Protection +2
8) Cloak of Non-Detection
9) Scroll of Protection from Acid
10) Scroll of Protection from Cold
11) Scroll of Protection from Fire
12) Scroll of Protection from Petrification
Roll 1d12 for which item he gives them as a reward. Result: 11. Brevlik gives them a scroll of Protection from Fire. This item is added to Coran’s inventory via EE Keeper.]
The item was a scroll that provides divine protection from Fire. A rather valuable item, actually.
“And thus endeth our adventure for the evening,” Eldoth said with a small sigh. He ended by telling that they had some drinks to celebrate at the Elfsong, and then headed back to the Low Lantern to still manage to get some rest before this day was to begin.
With breakfast finished the party walked to Sorcerous Sundries to have items identified and convert some to coin.
[After making the deal with Brevlik Eldoth attempted to persuade Coran that they should keep keep most of the treasure for themselves, and cash it out now, bringing back a quarter of it in coin for the party. Despite the influence of Coran’s cloak, to this Coran did not agree. Coran has developed quite a fondness by now for the party. He likes Imoen and Neera in particular. And he feels sympathy for Oracos as well, liking him well enough also. Coran figured there is almost certain to be even greater treasure on the path ahead. Moreover he is enjoying the thrill of this particular adventure that they are on. So the goodness in Coran’s heart, his sense of attachment to the party, and thrill for adventure the party is on overrided his personal friendship with Eldoth and temptation for personal gain. Plus, he felt the rogue stone is enough of a personal reward for him at that point.
Coran responded to Eldoth that the star sapphire gem should hold him for now, and Coran is gambling that they will come into even greater treasure by remaining loyal to the party. Coran added that the same thought had occurred to him as well. But he prayed to Tymora about it, and this is how he feels moved after doing so.
Eldoth was peeved at this and persisted in trying to convince Coran that they should just divvy up the treasure and be done. But Coran did not budge.
At this point I could have flipped a card as to whether Eldoth charmed Coran with the cloak, took all the loot, and leaft the party. But instead I roleplayed that he decides to stick around.
It really could easily have gone the way of Eldoth betraying them, I realize. But as Eldoth mulled over the option, what stopped him is the consideration that, as Coran has observed, there may well be far greater treasure ahead. They will be dealing with the wealthy trade organizations of the Seven Suns and Iron Throne, after all. So Eldoth grudgingly opted to stick with the party, despite Coran messing up his plan to make a quick score and take off.
Also something of a factor, although a lesser one, is that Eldoth genuinely does rather like Coran. Eldoth is NE, but theoretically friendships still can somewhat mitigate that alignment’s sheer greed and selfishness. Alignments are intended as rough guidelines, after all.
With the XP gained from Brevlik’s quest the Oracos and Imoen both level up (to Diviner 4 and Thief 5, respectively). Oracos thereby gains two more level 1 spell slots and one level two spell slot. Imoen puts all 25 skill points into Find Traps, raising the skill level to 75.
And here I hit a game engine wrinkle: when I returned everyone to the Low Lantern and rested the party, immediately afterward Eldoth’s quest timer triggered him to leave! I therefore ended up having to do some “out-of-story” housekeeping with the game engine. I opened the auto-save just before entering the Baldur’s Gate South (docks) map with the party on Baldur’s Gate Southeast map, and CLUAed Skie. I had her join the party temporarily, removing Imoen to do this. I Ctrl+Yed Skie and placed her bow and arrows in a barrel. I picked up her 36 gp loot drop also, and later subtracted it via EE Keeper. I had Imoen rejoin. Eldoth then will remain with the party. (Skie will still be at the Silvershield estate if the party wishes to add her later.) It seems that the same result can be achieved by using EE Keeper to add the global variable RESCUEDSKIE and setting its value to 1, within one day's time after Eldoth first sets foot on the map with the Silvershield estate.
The party then proceeded to the Low Lantern to rest.]
With our breakfast finished and the tale of Eldoth’s and Coran’s adventure completed, I then asked Coran and Eldoth how many items we had that had as yet unknown origins and possible enchantments. They advised that the count came to ten. I then advised the party that between Neera and me we could identify all of them, saving ourselves a thousand gold. We would of course have to rest twice (once for the spells to discover what the items are, and yet again to memorize the spells we’ll need for combat), but it seemed worth the delay. All agreed that this would be wise.
[Before resting Faldorn selects Detect Evil and Know Alignment for memorization. Oracos memorizes eight castings of Identify. Neera memorizes two castings of Identify. Eldoth changes one memorization of Blind to Friends.]
So this is what we did. (And I should note that I was excited to have reached the point in my studies as a wizard that, from now on, I could now begin devoting at least one casting of the spell to identify items to memorization; maybe even two. For until now our survival had depended on me memorizing combat spells alone.)
The items that Eldoth and Coran had acquired were as follows: a tome with difficult formulas by which to permanently increase mental powers of understanding, concentration, and memory (which would disappear after its enchantment is used); a pair of bracers that improve accuracy with weapons, once owned by a legendary mercenary named Xarrnous; a superior quality club made of darkwood that is crafted around an iron core, and enchanted by virtue of Shar’s Shadow Weave to be highly accurate at night; a spell scroll that protects against any (!)magic; a spell scroll that protects against any poison; and a cloak that was owned by none other than Balduran himself, and which offers significant protection from physical attacks and magic, both. And as mentioned before, their spree had also gained them a lighting wand, a wand of paralysis, and a scroll of protection against fire.
Now, however, there were also three items that it turns out were cursed: a ring that permanently gives the wearer the mind of a simpleton; and two spell scrolls that affect the user in more or less the same manner as the ring. Each would require a spell to remove the curse—and the two cursed scrolls might even potentially kill the person attempting to cast them.
Eldoth matter-of-factly commented that, naturally, the items that he had acquired were to remain in his possession if we did not need to sell them.
“Naturally,” said Faldorn, with a seemingly less than sincere smile. Eldoth looked at her mockingly as if hurt, followed by a faint eyeroll. He then turned his attention to flirt with Neera.
I decided to give Eldoth the spell scroll I had been carrying that paralyzes enemies with a touch similar to that of a ghast. He seemed genuinely grateful. I asked that Eldoth to please give Neera the scroll for the spell to blind targets, which he presented as if it was an important gift. (To which she playfully feigned a response of being overwhelmed by his gentlemanly attention.)
Because Eldoth could not wear two robes, he reluctantly allowed Coran to don the cloak once worn by Balduran—but he cautioned Coran never to forget that it was still his (Eldoth’s). We would still need to have its value appraised and decide whether to sell it. Similarly, Coran felt that Faldorn should hold onto the enchanted club, at least until we could determine its monetary worth.
As to the tome, it was agreed we would wait to see what price it may fetch before deciding what to do with it.
I then recommended that before attempting to scribe our new spells, Neera and Eldoth obtain potions that increase the strength of their minds to stand a better chance of learning spells. We could also then learn the value of the items we have, and consider selling some of them for coin with which to buy more useful things. This met with agreement by all. Eldoth reminded us however that Halbazer had no more such potions in stock. So we would have to travel west to the southwestern section of the city where there was two potion shops.
As I was suggesting this I noticed that Faldorn twice very quietly uttered incantations; and each time afterward she gazed briefly at Eldoth. [Faldorn casts Detect Evil and Know Alignment.] Her penetrating stare—although it lasted only a brief moment each time—seemed to make Eldoth visibly uncomfortable.
“What are you doing, witch?” Eldoth asked, perturbed. “Casting some sort of spell to rot the wood in my arrows?” he joked.
“No, nothing was done to you, minstrel,” Faldorn responded calmly. “Interesting that you mentioned rot, though,” she added pointedly.
“Ehm, I think our druidess must be going mad from prolonged exposure to civilization,” Eldoth quipped. “Perhaps you should return to the forest before you start prowling around on all fours like all the cats that roam this fair city.”
“Perhaps,” said Faldorn, whose self-possession and poise seemed to act as a fulcrum upon which Eldoth’s reactions teetered as he increasingly strove to be clever. Aware that he didn’t seem to be faring well in the verbal joust, the bard abandoned the repartee. He again turned his attention to Neera, lavishing his attention upon her. Neera seemed to relish it.
We then agreed to walk to the westerly shops to purchase the potions that would aid us in scribing our spells.
As we made our leisurely stroll westward through the docks, Neera came up alongside me and quietly joined me in private conversation, using hushed tones. She confided that she was haunted by an increasing fear of her use of wild magic. Indeed, she said, she had entirely ceased practicing her spells, lest we be subjected to some horrific outcome from it. It was clear from the half-elf lass’s demeanor that her heart was in fact deeply troubled. Her large, almost black eyes welled as she spoke, and I was moved by strongly protective feelings toward her. And, I admit, perhaps by even more—although I had accepted that such a thing would not come to pass, since in both appearance and charm I was no match for the other two males in the group. And I saw how she looked at Eldoth.
Neera asked that before proceeding with our investigation of the Seven Suns, could we please visit a wild mage who she had heard might be able to help her better control the Weave? His name was Adoy, she said. The problem was that he was said to reside several days to the south—indeed just east of the Firewine bridge. I remarked that it was a long journey. But if she was sure that she needed to do this for everyone’s safety, then it would be prudent for us to listen to her.
Surprisingly for me, without much reflection I responded to Neera that I would support her request. I would present the request to the party before we rested next to memorize our spells. Neera squeezed my arm in gratitude and smiled. She seemed relieved for having voiced something that she had been withholding, at some discomfort. She then thanked me again and dropped back to chat with best friend, Imoen.
And then it was Faldorn’s turn to approach me to confer. The druidess came alongside and asked that we speak privately. She lowered the volume of her voice enough as to be clearly heard by my ears, but not by those of the others.
“You are a Diviner, are you not, Oracos?” Faldorn asked.
“Aye, that I am,” I answered proudly.
“Have you never cast the spell to discern the character of others, when in the company of this band?” she asked nonchalantly. “Or to detect when there is evil about, for that matter?”
I responded that I had not. But that was thus far of necessity, for I had greater need of spells that would protect us from enemy attacks. I reminded Faldorn that numerous attacks had been made on my life and against the party by association. She nodded that she was aware.
“And you have never feared an enemy from within?” the druidess queried patiently.
“No,” I answered somewhat uneasily. I was suddenly uncomfortable at the thought that I may have overlooked a danger that someone else was able to discern. (And me the Diviner…) “Please tell your thoughts. What do you suspect?” I asked her squarely.
“You could probably guess who,” she said.
“Eldoth?” I responded.
She nodded affirmatively in response, as she gazed at the street sights. “His heart is black coal,” she said quietly. “Do not trust him.”
“What then of Coran?” I asked, even more troubled at the thought of multiple potential traitors in our band.
“Coran has a heart that is stout and true. He is worthy of your trust in that sense. But he is like an impetuous boy.” Faldorn paused as if about to speak more, but stopped herself. “There is much goodness in his heart,” she said in conclusion. Then she seemed compelled to add added one more observation about the elf. “I think Coran is not the fool that he may at times appear to be” she said. “He seems to have been called to protect the Oak Father’s forest with his bow. He was completely at home in the Cloakwood. I do not expect you to understand, but that speaks better of him than you could know,” she finished.
“And Neera?” I asked quickly before she moved away.
“She’s fine,” Faldorn smiled. “As, of course, is Imoen—but you knew that,” she added. The druidess paused yet again, and continued after a bit of thought. “Due to her needfulness Neera could be led astray by the bard, I suppose” she said. “But that just means you must do your part to be strong enough to prevent that from happening,” she smiled encouragingly. “Do not fear to lead.”
I sincerely thanked Faldorn for the conversation, though I felt chagrinned that I had allowed Eldoth’s charm to have guiled me, if Faldorn was correct. I would have to purchase the spells that Faldorn mentioned and try them for myself. I had just never had a desire to learn them at Candlekeep. I was much more interested in discovering the purposes of enchanted items and the mysterious contents of arcane tomes than seeing into the hearts of other people. That felt to me like a trespass of some sort. But now, unfortunately, there was a practical need of it. I certainly wasn’t in Candlekeep anymore.
When we arrived at the two shops of which Eldoth spoke, the first was sure enough a potion shop—but it also did not have the potions we needed to be more successful at scribing new spells. The second shop to which Eldoth had referred was now a weapons shop (with some good gear there--we might return to buy some of it when we have more coin). So we decided to attempt to hope for the best with our minds unaided. We would attempt to scribe them at Sorcerous Sundries, which was a calm place, and conducive with wizardly meditations.
It had just passed from dusk to nighttime by the time we arrived at Halbazer Drin’s shop.
Eldoth by far had the most spells to scribe. He told us that he feared that if he attempted to scribe more than three, he would probably just waste the scrolls. To his great pleasure his first attempt was successful: he learned the spell with which to open any lock! Eldoth explained that he next considered attempting to scribe the spell to make himself invisible. But he felt it more prudent for now to be able to cast that spell quickly in an emergency by simply incanting it from the scroll, even though that would exhaust the scroll without learning it. Eldoth then shared that he next decided to try scribing the spell to paralyze victims with the touch of a ghoul. But, sadly, that effort fizzled. Eldoth said that he then decided to quit attempting to scribe. He would hold onto the other spells for the time being.
Neera had only the spell that caused blindness to learn. She successfully scribed it.
And I had no spells to learn. So we were ready to see what the value of various items was, and to possibly make some transactions with Drin.
Eldoth quietly cast his spell to increase his likeability. And then we got appraisals for the various items. The most impressive among our new items was the cloak once owned by Balduran. Drin offered no less than eight thousand gold for it. Next most valuable was the tome at two and a half thousand gold. Eldoth’s bracers—that is, the ones that he pickpocketed from the ogre bounty hunter—were worth two thousand gold. The spell scroll to temporarily block all magic spells was worth nine hundred gold. The “club of Shar” was worth The other items were all in the several-hundreds. Interestingly, Drin offered to buy the cursed ring and a phony potion of absorption 50 gold each which of course we accepted.
We decided that most of the items that Eldoth and Coran had acquired were rather useful to us. Eldoth said he wanted to hold onto all of his items to begin with (there’s a surprise!). The cloak was powerful; and if any hand-to-hand fighting ensued Coran was the most skilled at it. He clearly would need the cloak. But in the same vein, it was well that Eldoth wear the bracers—for Coran alone would likely be overtaken by enemies. Eldoth will probably need to fight by his side. And by the same token, Faldorn should wield the Shadow Weave club. She too may have to battle enemies brandishing melee weapons.
In the same spirit Coran suggested that I should use the tome. I countered that it might be just as useful for Neera than me, at which Neera seemed sincerely touched. She was flattered and about to accept, but Faldorn interrupted to state that in her opinion it benefit the entire party the most overall if in fact I used it. I did have to acknowledge that for me to use the tome would in fact make it nearly (though not perfectly) certain that I could scribe most any spell. Neera commented that of course that was right, although anything that would help her control her wild magic might also be a sound investment. Faldorn gave me a knowing look, as if to remind me of our conversation.
I stated confidently that I agreed that it was probably best that I use it. And I read the book. The tome did indeed instantly vanish once my mind grasped the arcane formulas within it. And, sure enough, I could feel a new level of sharpness to my mind, and in my ability to use the Weave.
We decided that for now we should hold onto everything we had, as it was all potentially useful. We would also conserve our funds which now stood at nearly three thousand gold.
With my conversation earlier with Faldorn still fresh in my mind, I then announced to the group that we were going to take an unexpected excursion to the south. I explained that Neera’s powers were growing rapidly and soon would be highly dangerous if we did not act quickly to remedy the situation. We needed to seek out her former mentor just to the east of the Firewine bridge. Through my divinations I was able to discern that this was unmistakably the course we must now follow. We would leave in the morning.
Not surprisingly, Eldoth objected vehemently. “I think there is more to be gained by continuing our investigations for Scar here, as we had promised!” the bard said heatedly. “If we don’t act soon he could conceivably claim that our contract is void,” Eldoth continued. “All we must do is simply gather a bit of information for him—just that, and for two thousand gold!” He then noticed Neera who appeared taken aback. Eldoth caught himself and said to her tenderly, “I’m sorry, my flower… but really, won’t you be fine?” Then his tone grew slightly more impatient. “Just don’t use your magic!” Eldoth then turned back to the group and asked sternly, “Also, does our word mean nothing?”
Faldorn laughed. “You like being leader don’t you?” she said light-heartedly. “But outside of the city you’re lost as a lamb, it seems.” Faldorn then uncharacteristically put her hand on Coran’s shoulder, and said to him. “Wouldn’t it be nice to venture back into the wilds again, thief? We’ll surely need your excellent scouting skills again there.” Coran seemed flattered and thanked Faldorn for the compliment.
I said firmly but gently, “We’re going.”
But I then followed that up with an observation that I felt to be true. “Eldoth, we need your skills for this journey,” I said. “And we will need you even more when we return here to the Gate, hopefully in less than a tenday.”
And I then reminded Eldoth of something that I felt was hard for him to refute. “We already waited for two days while you and Coran took some immense risks. Now I know that we did that in order that all benefit from your plan to grow our wealth. But the fact remains that we agreed to your proposal. Can we now not extend essentially the same courtesy to another one of our group?” I also added for emphasis, “And who is currently in dire need?”
Eldoth then collected himself, and suavely as ever said “Of course you are right…” He paused as if carefully weighing a thought. “I have no more to add, for now,” he said seemingly unconcerned. “Neera, forgive me my dear. It is only that I feel I can care for you better here with all of my contacts. But I am certainly no fish-out-of-water in the wilderness. You found me alive and well in the Cloakwood did you not?”
We all acknowledged that was true.
“Come,” Coran said patting Eldoth on the back. “Let us enjoy some good drink and conversation tonight back at the Low Lantern. We’ll be back here in the city in no time.”
Neera and Imoen then made the request that in fact, we not return to the Low Lantern, for it was not a place where a good night sleep was to be had. I added my agreement. Faldorn nodded affirmatively as well. Somewhat to Coran’s and Eldoth’s disappointment, it was agreed by the majority that we would stay at the first out-of-the-way inn we had used upon first arriving in the city.
There we enjoyed a quiet evening of relaxation, drink, and song by Eldoth—who truly was a talented singer. We memorized spells, of course. For myself, in addition to the ones I had grown accustomed to using I memorized two castings of the spell to identify items, and one casting of the spell with which to see creatures that have made themselves invisible. I happy to finally have the luxury of beginning to use the spells of the school I had chosen.
And so it was on an early sunny morn on the fourteenth day of the Time of Flowers in the Year of the Year of the Banner that we departed the fair city of Baldur’s Gate, to journey south for a time to the home of Adoy, the wild mage, in the hope that this sage could help Neera master the highly unpredictable flow of the Weave within her.
I wish there was time to hone the prose, but there isn't. I know it could be better.
One thing that pleases me: the party's interpersonal dynamics are fairly interesting, I think. I'm enjoying how it has shaped up. There's a triangle between Oracos, Neera, and Eldoth. Eldoth and Coran are bros. Imoen and Neera are BFFs. Imoen and Coran are also pals. Faldorn has aligned herself with Oracos and Coran. There's a potential traitor in their midst (Eldoth) and a spy to root him out (Faldorn). I'm pretty happy with how those interconnecting constellations of relationships might develop as the plot finally begins to fully reveal itself.
After completing Neera's quest I think I will begin bringing the adventure to it's conclusion. And I do intend to see this through to completion!
I think there should be a lot of meaty material to roleplay off of once the plot heats up in chapters 6 and 7. There may be less things to leave to chance via card flips and die rolls. But the roleplay will probably get richer.
It's fresh, new, and exciting: as well as well written, which is definitely a plus. I await eagerly for the day Eldoth inevitably betrays them and they have to look for a sixth (Tiax?) (I just have a sense that such a day will eventually come, knowing Eldoth). Regardlessly of where you go, however, I'm very fond of this little roleplay. I hope to run one just as good, one day. Cheers!
Yeah, I'd agree that 75% feels about right. It's a low level spell that he'd know of. The random element is whether Eldoth, personally, would want to use it. Anyway, I'll use the WotC die roller to roll 1d4: If I roll a 1 then he doesn't ask to use the spell. But if I roll a 2, 3, or 4 then he will.
A related question is what would Eldoth's input and personal style be from the tactical standpoint. I know that this is to some extent up to my creativity, but I do want to try to approach his behavior from a committed roleplaying vantage. I'm trying to imagine what the character would do in his own right, independent from what I as a player wish he would do.
Theoretically, Eldoth could at times basically choose to live dangerously and adopt the Fighter/Mage approach with use of Armor, Shield (via an amulet), and Blur--which gets his AC to 1. When he commits to this combat style, he would probably cast Strength regularly as well. Mirror Image could be added in as too, I suppose. Anyway, buffed as such Eldoth could use Color Spray and wands on the front line. (Although clearly not as safely as if he remained to the rear and just used bow, wands, and spells.)
Now, martially, Eldoth has 2 APR with the longbow--plus he has his poisoned arrows. (Otherwise with a scimitar APR is 1.) When Hasted he'll have 3 APR with bow, and firing poisoned arrows. And he could even use a composite longbow while under the effects of Strength. (Edit: Forgot that Bards can't use composite longbows.) So Eldoth could wade in, wreak havoc on enemies with Color Spray and wands of Sleep, Horror, and Paralyzation, and then start pumping enemies full of poisoned arrows.
But is that really who Eldoth is? To be honest about it, I imagine that he would have stronger self-preservation instincts. He is self-centered, of course. But still... on the other hand, I could imagine Neera being impressed by such bravery if Eldoth were to do this even once just in order to show off for her. For example, let's say Neera starts to cozy up to Oracos and starts praising Coran for what a brave warrior he is--and that tweaks Eldoth's narcissism (and his competitiveness as an 'alpha'). This manipulates Eldoth into considering more heroic displays of combat. And perhaps Neera wishes to be in control of the flirtation that is mutually going on between her and Eldoth. She then mischievously turns the tables (i.e., she has appeared to be infatuated with him) to try to manipulate him to see if she can get him to continue to demonstrate his bravery.
An advantage of doing so for Eldoth is that through such acts of bravery he can claim more authority as a leading decision-maker for the party.
The journey south along the Coast Way was relatively uneventful. South of Beregost we were attacked by a pack of wild dogs that fortunately did not pose too severe a threat.
About midway between Beregost and Nashkel we traveled east, and came upon the ruins of the Ulcaster school of wizardry, tales of which had fascinated me since childhood. The ruins stood atop a ridge of cliffs, and we made our way through a kind of desert-like gorge enclosed by the cliffs. Before continuing we decided to rest first at the northernmost edge of the ridge. With Shaundakul’s and Mielikki’s blessings we were able to sleep and meditate upon our spells without suffering any attacks, which in these wilds was sadly all too common. We decided to push on through the night, despite the stories Imoen and I had both heard growing up of strange phenomena and ghost sightings at the ruins.
Coran scouted ahead, as was our custom now in any wilderness environment. Coran soon returned from his reconnaissance to report that he spied a pair of Chill elite archer bandits lying in wait for unwary travelers ahead. The highwaymen blocked our way forward. So our plan was then to sneak up and I would cast the Dozing spell upon them before they could spot us.
The plan mainly succeeded, although it only put one of them into a slumber. The other launched an arrow that pierced Coran’s armor with the arrow head penetrating his flesh. This wound would eventually require some healing, but the elf shrugged it off for the time being.
Coran scouted further ahead and returned to report that a traveler just ahead appeared to be camping dangerously close to a trio of Chill bandits. The Chill and the traveler apparently had no idea of each other’s presence.
“Shouldn’t we to warn him?” Imoen asked, having become the conscience of our band in such matters.
Not surprisingly Eldoth scoffed at the suggestion. Faldorn remained stoic and impassive as ever, indicating no preference. Neera , Coran, and I however all sided with Imoen. So we devised a plan.
Coran would sneak up to the fellow and quietly try to alert the man. Should the brigands should spot Coran, however, then Neera and I would each be ready to cast the Slumber spell, and Faldorn would attempt to Charm one of them to attack the others. Faldorn decided to also cast an enchantment upon herself to make her skin as tough as tree bark; for if Coran was detected both she Eldoth would then rush the archers--she with her enchanted club and he wielding his scimitar. Imoen offered to double around and sneak up behind the hobgoblins so that she may be prepared to launch a sneak attack with her short sword if necessary. But hopefully none of this would be needed if Coran could but simply alert the man and get him to safety.
Such preparation was now our custom. And once again the practice was rewarded. For Coran was in fact detected by the hobgoblins. And there were two more bandits than he had spotted! They fired arrows from a distance, upsetting our plan.
During the battle both Coran and Eldoth took poisonous arrows; Eldoth did so twice, in fact—but I twice cast my spell to heal Eldoth from the poison, and Coran drank a healing potion that also stopped the poison in his veins. Disappointingly, my Slumber spell put only one of them to sleep. So in following up, I turned to the Blindness spell instead for others. Neera cast a spell to make the one attacking Eldoth so feeble in strength that he could barely swing his sword; and she also Blinded another. And Faldorn did successfully enchant one to do her bidding. Neera had just blinded the one that was charmed. But at least this kept him out of the fray until we could kill him once the others were slain.
Faldorn and I healed up Coran and Eldoth before we proceeded further. Eldoth commented that he was just about to use his wand of Horrification upon the remaining enemies; but fortunately they were dispatched before he had to do so, as it would have wasted a charge of the wand.
Had we lacked my ability to stop poison through magic, or if Coran did not have the elixir that stopped poison, then one or both of them could well have died. This sobered our victory.
Among the possessions of one of the hobgoblins was a pair of enchanted boots that I cast a spell upon to identify. The boots possessed the very same magic as the pair that Imoen wore to slink about unseen. These we gave to Coran for occasional use in sneak attacks. His “Paws of the Cheetah” boots provided us more of an overall advantage in most circumstances, however. But the stealthy pair may yet come in handy. We were still glad to have the added ability for Coran to sneak about if needed.
It turned out that the traveler was a messenger carrying word to Baldur’s Gate of a possible invasion from Amn. This was hardly news, it seemed. But perhaps some movement of troops had actually begun? Unfortunately, before we could question the messenger further he sped off.
Our journey then continued relatively uneventfully through the night until a pair of wolves attacked us as we made our way to the Firewine Bridge. A Terror and Slumber spell neutralized this attack entirely, and Faldorn summoned a dread wolf of her own; although it turned out the summoned creature’s aid wasn’t needed.
By late afternoon the following day we arrived at the ruins of what was formerly a monumental stone bridge that spanned a dry river bed that had cut a rather deep channel. Eldoth shared that this was the site of a great wizard battle several centuries ago, which altered the course of the river! Myself, I had only heard that it was a place where the Weave behaves strangely at times—however that was all I knew; which I added to the discussion. Not to be outdone, Eldoth continued that he had heard that the hin of the halfling village a bit to the north steer clear of the area, despite the fact that magic items from that great battle are even to this day sometimes discovered here.
We would need to rest soon since we had traveled throughout the night. But we decided to have Coran scout ahead to assess how safe it would be. We advanced cautiously behind Coran, who returned to us just short of the bridge’s north end to report that he spotted an elderly man by himself donned in tattered garb, who was softly muttering what Coran assumed most likely to be prayers, although Coran added that could not quite make out his words. Perhaps someone prospecting for treasure, as Eldoth had mentioned? In any event, it was decided that we would risk speaking with him, with no dissenting opinions about that plan.
Eldoth did the talking to the fellow, and the conversation that followed provided some mirth—for the man was a priest of Ilmater who was intent on proselytizing about his faith. His religious views could hardly have been more far removed from our bard’s unabashed “get-me-mine” philosophy of life. At the end of the conversation Eldoth mockingly told the priest that, why yes, of course, we would happily give up all our worldly possessions. The poor fellow then trotted off; either deluded that he had converted us, or feigning success in the realization that efforts to convert us seemed clearly futile. Unfortunately we were unable to ask the priest about what dangers he may have encountered in the area.
Our decision now was whether to cross the bridge or to continue along the ridge above the dry river bed. We could see even right at the end of the bridge that fairly substantial but nevertheless rotting lumber served to connect sections of the bridge in several places. It also looked like a location where we might be at risk for no real avenues of escape in the event of an ambush by bandits. The ridge around the river bed certainly looked safer by comparison. We decided to have Coran scout the bridge.
Coran soon returned to tell us that the lumber was stable, but about two thirds of the way along the bridge he spied a young man with a lute strung to his back, whose apparently relaxed demeanor did not suggest any nearby danger—not that such an impression could be taken to mean that there was none, of course. We decided that while this was far from a certain sign of safety, it boded strongly enough in that direction to proceed across the bridge.
However no sooner had we started across the bridge that we were attacked from behind by a slew of zombies! They appeared literally out of nowhere, so I could only surmise that this was a manifestation of the wild magic that plagued the area.
We had darts and arrows readied, so we let fly a volley of those missiles first. But the zombies rapidly closed in, requiring us to switch to hand-to-hand combat weapons—all except Eldoth, that is. Neera and I grabbed our staves, Faldorn her club, and Coran his sword. Eldoth however seemed to feel that the rest of us provided sufficient protection for him to shoot arrows unmolested.
Quick-thinking Neera then smartly used a skillfully aimed scroll of Slippery Earth which slowed most of them and allowed us to destroy them with our ranged weaponry. I did however sustain a fairly deep gash to my forearm, which Neera (to my surprise, though most welcome) rather made a bit of a fuss over.
“Oracos, you made me feel so safe by fighting so bravely fighting by my side!” Neera exclaimed. “But you’re hurt! Please heal yourself right away, okay?” I answered that I had exhausted my healing powers until after we next rested. But I waved off the compliment for use of my staff as ‘simply doing what any man would have done’.
“Well, not every man did,” Faldorn quipped.
Coran smiled and coughed at the barb at Eldoth; and Imoen failed to suppress a grin.
“My arrows were masterfully aimed,” Eldoth responded flatly in his own defense. “I killed four of them.”
“You killed two,” Faldorn rejoined. “Not that it isn’t appreciated…”
“You seem to imply something more, wench,” Eldoth sighed. “But I really don’t care what you feel about it. I was effective and that is all that matters.”
“Is it really?” Faldorn asked serenely.
“Yes. I am nothing if not clever enough to see what needs to be done and achieve my goals.”
“Well, if you say so, bard,” said Faldorn calmly. She then smiled at me. “I agree with Neera, Oracos. You were very brave.” She proceeded to use her last healing spell upon me. Faldorn then asked me “What do you think we should do next Diviner? Was this an omen?”
Neera then grabbed my hand and echoed the same question herself, with sincere curiosity as to what I recommended. “Yes, what should we do?”
As I considered the question, just for the slightest moment I noticed that Eldoth seemed to betray a brief but intense flare of anger in his eyes, which narrowed hard upon Faldorn. However just as quickly his visage relaxed, and he feigned (or so it seemed to me) indifference.
In fact I did feel that Faldorn’s suggestion was correct. It did seem to be an omen.
“Aye, I think we should traverse the ridge instead,” I answered. Eldoth remained quiet at this, and was now otherwise momentarily preoccupied. His attention had shifted to inspecting one of his poisoned arrows, as if he was utterly unconcerned with the decision.
So this was the course we followed. Coran scouted ahead as ever. At one point he spotted more undead shambling about in the ravine below and appeared to have no access to us with a cliff face between us. But due to the unpredictability from the apparent wild magic in the area we slipped past them undetected as a precaution.
With the bridge receding from view we decided to rest, and managed to do so without suffering any sort of attack.
[Here for some reason, from the southeastern corner of the Firewine Bridge map the game engine doesn’t let you connect with the area for Adoy’s enclave. This makes little sense, since the journal entry states Adoy’s home is “east of the Firewine Bridge.” In fact it is actually just south of Firewine on the map. Anyway, I leapfrogged to the area south of Adoy’s area and just pretended that it was a direct connection. I can see no reason why Adoy’s complex should not be accessible from the southern end of the Firewine Bridge map, given the journal entry.]
Eldoth is wearing the nymph cloak, so I have to be careful not to lose sight of that. His Cha is high to begin with, and wearing the cloak he's at 18. The party can't help but like him. Although I'm roleplaying it that Faldorn by virtue of her connection to Nature, disdain for civilization (with all of its political machinations and silver-tongued devils), and balanced TN comportment is much more immune to his charm than the others (i.e., she can at least see through his charm and maintain her own center). She is also totally mission-focused to investigate the Iron Throne. So to that end, Faldorn must to find a way to inspire Oracos to lead versus Eldoth.
Neera is a wild card here: she is infatuated with Eldoth, and is only giving Oracos attention (and didn't come to Eldoth's support when Faldorn dissed him) in order to try to make Eldoth jealous.
But anyway, despite the tension that just occurred between Faldorn and Eldoth, Coran, Neera, and to some extent even Imoen* are unable to resist a growing sense of Eldoth as the party's emerging leader. Oracos even struggles with it, but he has Faldorn to help him see clearly that Eldoth really cannot be trusted. And Faldorn is working to build Oracos' confidence to prevent Eldoth from assuming leadership.
* Although Imoen is ever loyal to the protagonist, she is still vulnerable to the cloak's influence.
We found the Firewine River upon which Neera had heard Adoy had made his home, and followed it. By nearly dusk the following day we arrived at the entrance to Adoy’s compound. Wagon tracks coursed through a rocky area until there came into view a large pile of wrecked wagons and logs that formed a fortification. There was within this abatis a narrow entrance to permit wagon traffic.
Coran scouted ahead and soon returned to report that there were a great many goblins ahead guarding the narrow entrance. They were equipped with bows.
Presumably this did not bode well for the safety and welfare of Adoy. But Coran observed that the goblins may simply have been hired to guard the complex. Neera observed that given this was the home of a Wild Mage, human guards might also have been shapeshifted by a surge.
Coran offered to see if he could negotiate our entry without a fight. If the attempt failed he could speed away and hide somewhere, and then use his stealth to return to us. Should the goblins be hostile and found us, it was concurred by all that the smartest plan of attack was to use the Sleeping and Terror spells.
Coran slipped away into to growing darkness. Within n a few moments we heard his whistle that all was safe for us to proceed, followed by another which was his signal to move briskly. We advanced to see a goblin leading Coran along the river on the adjacent wagon path. When we caught up to them Coran explained in a hushed voice that the goblin was taking us to see their king.
Our guide seemed to genuinely be goblinkind, but he was however rather friendly. He was proud of a wooden bridge that he and his kind had erected to cross the river, and noted that they had received aid in planning the construction from “Bargrivyek,” a name that seemed vaguely familiar from my studies; but if so I could not quite remember. The goblin pointed to a wooden cage that the goblin explained they used to delight in tormenting a bear. There was no bear inside it at the moment, however. Faldorn arched her eyebrow at this with a most stern expression—and her gaze then trained upon our guide as though searing a hole through the back of the goblin’s head.
The goblin led us to a cave entrance and advised that their “King Rogdok” was to be found inside, bidding that we enter. Upon setting foot inside we could see that a cavernous cave complex had been designed for habitation, with a smithing operation immediately to our left. We were aware that this could all be a trap. So the consensus was that Coran should scout ahead.
[Does anyone think to have Imoen check for traps instead? Black card = no.]
But just as Coran was preparing to scout ahead we were approached by a goblin who was angered that his fellow has permitted us to enter. He called for the others to kill us. Of course we killed him immediately, but now there was the likelihood that his cry to battle had alerted others. Coran snuck around to the left and in but an instant returned to hand-signal that four more were immediately to our left. He conveyed with more hand signals to Imoen that the two of them should sneak up upon their quarry and attack from behind. It was of course understood by all by now that once the battle was joined the rest of us would move in as well.
Imoen delivered a devastating attack on her target, whereas Coran’s missed (perhaps due to his goblin’s startled reaction at the sight of Imoen’s attack). The goblins then turned their bows on Imoen and she took two arrows before we killed them. Imoen used a healing potion in battle, and I healed her further as well.
We decided to make a quick search of the smithing area for clues about what might be going on here. Imoen had the foresight to think of looking for traps. It then dawned that none of us had thought to take that precaution only a moment earlier when Coran took his first step to scout ahead.
As such, Imoen searched for traps and found no clues, other than the goblins were cooking some sort of foul stew with a humanoid skull in it.
Imoen continued to search for traps ahead as she slowly crossed a rickety rope-and-plank bridge that spanned a rushing cave stream. On the other side she discovered a treasure chest with a slain human corpse next to it—so naturally she inspected it for a trap, but there was none. The chest contained a spell scroll with which to detect evil, a potion to sharpen powers of concentration (useful for scribing spells), an enchanted leather armor which would require identification, a wand which required identification, a couple of healing potions, and a good sum of gold.
We decided that we might as well use my two castings of Learn Origin for the leather and wand. The leather was enchanted to improve the ability to hide, and conferred more protection than the studded leather that Coran was wearing. So this item went to him. The wand was one to Panic the enemy, with a good number of charges to it. Eldoth already had such a wand, and I had two castings of the spell memorized. But this could come in handy for whatever lay ahead. We gave it to Neera, that by means of using it the risk of a wild surge would be minimized.
Imoen scouted ahead and quickly returned to report that just ahead were several goblins and hobgoblin guarded a crudely gated entrance to another area of the cave complex.
Our customary plan of attack for such situations was to have Coran sneak up and signal those of us with wizardry skills to creep close enough to cast the Sleeping or Strike Fear spells from a distance, as such catching the enemy unawares. We could see no reason to deviate from that strategy now. It would also be wise to Blind the hobgoblin, I felt. So Eldoth could do that, I would use Slumber and Neera would use the new Panicking wand.
However, here Faldorn made a suggestion. She advised that she could cast the Entanglement spell from afar and Coran could lob his two potions of exploding fluid. This might kill them all outright, but the ones who survive would be badly injured and could easily be finished off by our ranged weapons. This would keep our other more customary tactic in reserve for whatever battles await us.
All agreed that this seemed a smart move. So this served as our plan.
Unfortunately, Faldorn was detected by a goblin when she attempted to cast the spell. The enemy began firing their bows at her, and disrupted the spell. The hobgoblin was clearly their leader. He roared in rage at the goblins for failing to prevent us from reaching their location. Coran then opened fire on the hobgoblin with two arrows of ice, and we all leapt to action. Faldorn summoned a dread wolf to attack the hobgoblin, and Eldoth used the spell to rob the hobgoblin’s sight. I cast the Slumbering spell, and Neera used the Panicking wand. Eldoth’s spell had succeeded it seemed, for the hobgoblin was quickly felled. The handful of goblins was easily destroyed.
The hobgoblin had an unusually well-crafted short bow, which we gave to Imoen. He also possessed a bastard sword of exceptional quality (which none of us was trained to use).
Imoen carefully opened the gate to the next area and snuck through to check for traps. She quickly returned to tell us that a portly bald man inside was calmly engaged in scholarly studies in fairly nice living quarters. All concurred that perhaps this may be the man we seek. We decided to approach him and hope for the best.
Just before we entered I decided to cast the scroll of evil detection, however. Sure enough, as Faldorn had warned me, I was able to see Eldoth’s maliciousness revealed. The man before us, however, seemed to have a good heart.
It was in fact Adoy, as he introduced himself as such. Adoy then began to tell us a strange tale of adventure. One day he had inadvertently summoned a tribe of goblins through a surge of wild magic. The goblins were stunned, and believed him to be the goblin deity Bargrivyek, a god who insists on cooperation among goblin tribes. (I did faintly remember reading of this goblin god from a book at Candlekeep.) However a local hobgoblin, Rogdok, who roamed the area discovered the new tribe of goblins. Rogdok thereby investigated Adoy’s cave. He imprisoned Adoy for the purpose of exploiting the goblins belief that Adoy was their god, and as such got the goblins to do his bidding. As such Rogdok forced Adoy declare to the goblins that he was their king.
As Adoy recounted this odd tale, Ekandor and his lackeys teleported into the chamber and demanded both Neera and Adoy for their twisted study. And so an intense battle was joined. The guard accompanying Ekandor included another wizard, a fearsome ogre, and two warriors who appeared to magically summon gargantuan strength.
The battle that followed was rather complex. And so I shall not attempt to relate its every move. But to paint it in broad strokes: Coran quaffed an oil of speed in order to fire his already deadly arrows all the faster. Neera’s wand succeeded in Panicking both Ekandor and the other mage. In addition, Eldoth was able to blind Ekandor. And another heartening development was that I succeeded in using my wand of paralysis on the ogre. Obviously, these successes provided an enormous advantage right from the outset.
Less favorably, Adoy’s first spell created a wild surge that changed him into a squirrel!
Then our luck evened out. The two warriors posed great difficulty. It was well that that Faldorn had summoned a dread wolf, for the creature managed to keep one of them at bay for much of the battle. But even so, these two fighters seemed impervious to our efforts to Blind or Terrify them.
The tide turned, however, when Neera succeeded in Enfeebling one of them. And in another stroke of good fortune, one of them broke his spear. This helped us survive until Eldoth and I eventually were able to use our paralysis wands to stop them.
With all of the enemies thus incapacitated in one form or another, we quickly killed them all. Eldoth used his poison arrows on Ekandor for good measure.
Adoy then returned to human form and finished his tale. Much to Neera’s dismay, Adoy advised that unfortunately he had discovered no method by which to protect against wild magic surges. His advice to Neera: accept the chaotic nature of wild magic, and learn to improvise according to whatever a surge may bring.
Neera was chagrinned by this lack of a solution. But before teleporting away, Adoy gave her a gift of his belt that protects significantly from the chance of being shapeshifted either by a spell or a wild surge. This of course we gave to Neera.
Neera rather pouted about the fact that her quest seemed to have been in vain…
Both Faldorn and I sustained injury, but not to the point of being life-threatening. We each healed ourselves.
Ekandor had worn a Traveler’s Robe that would provide Neera protection against missiles; and that seemed more practical than the one she had been wearing to robe protect from fire. So she donned that garment. And on the way out of the cave Eldoth grabbed a composite longbow from one of the slain goblins, which I suppose he figured was worth the trouble to sell (such bows require more strength than any of us has).
And so we exited Adoy’s cave. The goblins outside were unconcerned about us. I assumed that they were most likely unaware of what had transpired inside.
Faldorn stopped for a moment as we passed by the wooden cage the goblins had made for the bear (where was it, though?). I strongly suspect that she was about to pray to Silvanus regarding whether the goblins should be destroyed. But seeing this, I tugged at her to please keep moving. In so doing, I offered her a look of understanding but which also signaled a plea to the effect of ‘please, just let us get out of there without further incident’. Exhaling a soft sigh of regret, she complied with my unspoken request.
As we left the area Eldoth asked that we visit the Nashkel Fair for him to make a relatively minor purchase, based on conversations he had had with various party members about what could be purchased there. The bard stated he had a plan in mind; but we would just have to trust him for now as to what was. If we would but indulge him this small request, he would reveal all once we had returned to Baldur's Gate.
He had certainly proven himself worthy of such a favor, I felt. The others agreed—except Faldorn who remained silent.
So we headed to Nashkel for a brief respite before making the journey back up the Coast Way to resume our investigation of the Iron Throne.
[In a total of four attempts Oracos died three times in this battle. Interestingly, no one else died—just Oracos. The party managed to neutralize the ogre berserker and two mages in every try. But somehow the fighters always managed to reach Oracos with their spears. In each case it seemed to take forever either for Oracos’ use of a wand of paralyzation, or for consumption of a healing potion to work. In each case Oracos could have fled. But I kind of hoped he would succeed at using the wand or potions rather than running. In any event, despite the fact that I reloaded for PC death three times, I’m pleased that none of the NPCs were slain. It would have been a tough slog to get any fallen party members to the Nashkel temple. And if too many had died, then some might not have gotten resurrected.]
During our journey we stopped for a rest period. And along the way I had a nice conversation with Neera! She is quite full of mischief and likes to keep me guessing at how she feels about me, I think. But I am starting to believe that she likes me… I’m pretty sure she does, anyway! Could it be that she might be interested in me as possibly more than a friend? She herself said time will tell. So I am feeling rather good about things after this.
We arrived at the fairgrounds first. Eldoth said he would be back shortly and headed off on his own. Coran wanted for us to hit one of the gambling tents. So we agreed to accompany Coran there while Eldoth completed his errand.
Coran had some initial success at the dice table that quickly reversed when he started trying his luck at the roulette wheels. Imoen grabbed him after a certain point in his losses, and pulled him out the tent when it was obvious that he was merely siphoning money away.
Eldoth wasn’t gone long and quickly rejoined us. We then walked to town and paid a visit to the weapons store. We sold off a few minor items that we didn’t need such as Coran’s old studded leather, and some gems and jewelry. Coran asked Eldoth where was the bastard sword we had taken from “King Rogdok?” Eldoth smiled and produced 600 gold which he said had gotten for it at one of the merchant tents. (Not a great price, I thought. But fair enough, I suppose.)
We then decided to get a good night’s rest at the inn before pushing north again to Baldur’s Gate.
On the road to Beregost we were ambushed by five bandit archers who surrounded us, which forced all but Neera and me to rush them with melee weapons. I cast Sleep but to no avail. Neera used her Horror wand twice and it worked eventually on all of them. Faldorn also summoned a wolf, although by that time the tide had turned. But both Neera and I took arrows and were actually grievously injured. Eldoth sustained a less serious injury as well. I healed Neera and Eldoth, and Faldorn healed me.
Eldoth insisted on scalping the bandits. However, when we stopped in Beregost there was in fact no buyer for the grisly scalps. Eldoth was determined to see if they might be worth something at the Friendly Arm Inn, but Bentley didn’t want them either. Undeterred, Eldoth insisted that we then try selling them at High Hedge, as he had heard our tales of the exceptional prices that we had gotten there from Thalantyr. We all felt that it wasn’t worth the trouble, but Eldoth was firm that he wanted some tangible compensation for the bandits who very nearly killed us.
Eldoth was so eager to try to make this sale that it seemed pointless to try to dissuade him. By the same token, though, we also felt it would be nice to visit Thalantyr again. So the party agreed.
Approaching the entrance to High Hedge we were attacked by a pack of wild dogs that we were forced to kill.
It came as no surprise to us, but Thalantyr wasn’t interested in the scalps either. The mage explained to Eldoth that news had apparently gotten around that we had decimated the bandit operation, so the Flaming Fist weren’t taking the scalps any longer. Eldoth looked visually perturbed. However, before we left, Eldoth struck up a lengthy, animated conversation with Thalantyr about the Conjurer’s past adventures. The two of them seemed to hit it off rather well, in fact. Most of these were stories that we had had heard before, so we left them to it.
As we left High Hedge Eldoth reluctantly agreed to discard the scalps.
On the journey back to Baldur’s Gate Neera again chatted me up, and we had another discussion that was enjoyable but just slightly disconcerting. She seems to draw me in to express something she’s looking for in response, but then criticizes me when I give the answer that it seemed she was seeking!
Upon arrival in Baldur’s Gate we exhausted, and virtually collapsed at the Elfsong Tavern. The next morning Eldoth seemed in an unusually chipper mood. He suggested that we go directly to Sorcerous Sundries and do some shopping for spells, potions, and anything else that seemed worthwhile. This seemed not a bad idea at all, so the party was up for it.
When we got to the shop it was apparent that something wasn’t right about Eldoth, however. He sold a valuable lightning wand and an expensive start sapphire gem (where on earth had that come from? obtained from his pickpocketing no doubt!) and purchased the Contagion spell—which he had no hope of casting at his experience level. And which he would not be able to cast for quite some time to come, presumably.
I asked him to stop what in the nine hells he was doing, and took a look at our coin purse. The amount seemed roughly to be about right, except for the fact that it did not add up with respect to the transactions that he had just made. We should have had more from the sale of the lightning wand and the gem. I also noticed the potion case among Eldoth’s belongings that we had seen for sale at High Hedge. What was going on?
I confronted him on the spot. “Eldoth, what in world is going on? Why would you make such a purchase? And where did the potion case come from? Have you been making other purchases?”
“You don’t think I can scribe the spell do you. Would you like to make a wager?” Eldoth responded drolly.
“I am positive that you will not be able to, now that you ask.” I replied.
“A wager then! What shall be the stakes?” Eldoth said smugly.
“Stakes?” I asked, hoping that it was a jest. But it was clear that he was serious.
“I really have no idea,” I sighed.
“The winner of the bet shall lead the party in all strategic and tactical decisions for the next tenday, then,” Eldoth answered.
“Very well,” said I. “But I agree only if a condition is attached. Should by some miracle you succeed, you will explain why you are currently doing what you are doing. Because ‘tis most passing strange.”
“Fair enough,” said Eldoth calmly.
To my amazement, Eldoth succeeded in effortlessly scribing the difficult spell!
It then dawned upon me that Eldoth must have imbibed a potion to bolster his powers of concentration. But where did he get one? There were none of those for sale either at High Hedge, or here. And he had not stolen mine. He might have pickpocketed one. But when?
“Eldoth, I bow to your prodigious mental powers,” I said with a faint but unmistakable note of sarcasm. “But you must now fulfill the condition I attached. What in the gods many names are you up to?”
Eldoth then looked genuinely confused for a moment. “I agreed to that?” he asked. And apparently he was sincere.
“Yes, you did,” I answered. “So may we have the answer please? What in blazes is wrong with you?”
“Why I did, yes… I suppose I must answer truthfully then.” Eldoth paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. Then he began a lengthy explanation.
“I did not like it when I was accused of being a coward for simply firing arrows—which, note thee well, just happens to be my strongest martial skill. At any rate, meanwhile I have been watching you repeatedly cast the Sleep spell with next to no effectiveness whatsoever. Did you think to consult with me about what might work better? Of course not…
“Well, the fact is there is a much superior spell that can be used known as Color Spray. I have seen it used most proficiently by many a mage. It occurred to me that you should see a demonstration of it. And in order for me to do that without getting myself killed in battle—since although effective, it does place one in harm’s way—I concluded that I needed some more spells and equipment to protect me in so doing. So I endeavored to gather the needed spells and an amulet.
“It really did no harm, to do this, I feel. I just felt it would be a waste of time to go through the bothersome step of ‘asking permission’.”
“Just what did you purchase?” I asked.
“Let’s see… Color Spray, of course… Armor… a Shield amulet… and a Strength scroll. Some of the other spells I already had gathered: Blur and Mirror Image. Oh, and potion with which I could be assured of scribing all these spells.”
“Wait, which potion is that? What type?” I queried.
“It was a one-of-a-kind potion that Thalantyr had for sale. He said it would be sure to increase my intelligence to astronomical heights in order to scribe anything. He cautioned that there was a downside, which was that it robbed the person of ability to make sound decisions. Which is undoubtedly why I am telling you all of this now, you see. “
“Eldoth!” I exclaimed. “I know of the very potion of which you speak, for we sold it to Thalantyr after having purchased it at the Nashkel fair. You should be weak as a kitten now after having consumed it. How are you able to even move?”
“That’s what I purchased the Strength scroll for,” the bard responded blithely. “Most unfortunately, however… I simply forgot to purchase a potion with which make sensible decisions again. I was exhausted from our long march. And this morning I again failed to think of it when I consumed the potion that guaranteed success in scribing the spells.” Eldoth paused for a moment. Then he continued a bit more deliberately with his speech. “I figured that all I would have to do is take the short walk here and buy a potion to restore my decision-making ability. But it didn’t work.”
At this Drin who had been patiently observing all this from behind the counter burst out into a laugh. “This is the most entertaining show I have seen in a very long time!” He chuckled. Drin added that he loved the theater, but hadn’t had the pleasure of watching a good acting troupe for quite some time. So this pleased him greatly.
“So it seems then that you’re telling us all this now solely because you have no judgment whatsoever? In other words, it is because you’re completely and utterly incapable of any sort of sound decision-making at this moment, correct ?”
“That’s the long and short of it, yes,” said Eldoth. “In a nutshell that is why I’m answering truthfully.”
“But you are also smart as Mystra herself as well at this moment,” I observed.
“Aye. Strange that,” Eldoth replied.
“Are you smart enough to see now that you must let us basically tie you up for the entire day? To keep you—and then by association, the rest of us—out of trouble?” I asked.
“I am,” said Eldoth.
“Do you think you’ll let us do that?” I asked.
“Doesn’t seem too likely,” Eldoth answered.
“Ah! Are you clever enough to see that only the opposite of what you believe would be best is the correct answer?”
“Yes! That is true.”
“Is it the case that what you most truly want is actually not to comply with our request to tie you up?”
“Hmm… yes.”
“So in that case there is no choice but to let us tie you up!”
“I… think that is correct… Yes! It is.”
“You realize that we’re going to have to knock you out first, right?”
“Oof! Really? Is that actually necessary?”
“I’m afraid it is. Will it help if it is Coran who knocks you out?”
“Well, I suppose so.”
At this point Imoen, who had just been speaking quietly with Halbazer, walked behind Eldoth and held a vial to his lips. “Don’t drink this down, Eldoth,” she said.
“Okay!” And then Eldoth proceeded to drain the bottle when she tilted it into his mouth.
Eldoth’s natural demeanor seemed to be restored with the potion of insight he just drank.
“That was dreadful,” he shuddered. “Lest there be any more ‘sharing' I beg of you, please do take me to a room and keep me unconscious until tomorrow.”
Drin then made a suggestion. “That ring you sold me, the Discipliner… I’ll let you have it for 112 gold. Put it on Eldoth, tie him up, and he’ll basically be an imbecile until it is removed. Of course you’ll need a scroll to remove the curse. But that will be cheaper by half than buying three more portions of insight.”
“Very well. That would indeed be both the smartest and wisest thing to do,” Eldoth concurred.
We made those purchases accordingly.
And so we walked Eldoth back to the Elfsong Tavern in order to wait out the effects of the unusual potion he had taken (one full day’s time). Neera held his arm and consoled him, although the bard held his head high. There was little conversation, but many facial expressions were shared by those walking behind him!
[So… Eldoth’s quest to sell the bandit scalps simply provided a convenient ruse; he was actually motivated by his wish to visit the magic shops in order to gather the items he needed to show off his skill at using Color Spray in his competitive relationship with Oracos. And of course the potion that Eldoth drank to guarantee success in scribing the spells was the one originally for sale at the Nashkel fair that raises Int to 25 but also sets both Strength and Wisdom at 3, for 24 hours duration.
A big part of the roleplay came from my own oversight as a player, in that I myself overlooked the 3 Wisdom effect of the potion. When I checked Eldoth’s stats after consuming the potion, I realized that I then had to roleplay him with basically no Wisdom at all—while at the same time being super smart. If we conceive of Wisdom as judgment, or sound decision-making, Eldoth would basically then be doing everything totally wrong in that state from the vantage of what motivates him in his normal condition.
Eldoth had cast Friends before making the transactions at Sorcerous Sundries. So he had Cha 24, Str 18/50 and Int 25... with Wis 3! And especially with the nymph cloak he’s wearing and his pickpocketing ability things could have gotten gigantically out of hand with him. I really didn’t want to have to contend with Flaming Fist Enforcers! So I roleplayed to have some creative fun, but also without too much actual damage from what could easily have ensued from Eldoth in this condition. They would have had to boot him from the party, I’d expect. But I’d rather have him around as a player. So I did sort of shape the events for what I wanted.
While completing Neera’s quest and during this journey back to Baldur’s Gate Coran gained a Fighter level (now Fighter 4/Thief 4) and Neera gained a level as well (to Wild Mage 5).]
On a related note, this is a vanilla game (I uninstalled SCS to continue this adventure) but I'm experiencing very little success with the Sleep spell, either in vanilla or SCS. Did EE nerf that spell from the original game?
In another game I have going in which SCS was installed it seemed Color Spray has proven consistently way more effective than Sleep. (A Transmuter was the caster if that matters.) The cone or fan of colors was regularly knocking a very substantial percentage of the enemy. Maybe due to possible SCS tweaks? But anyway, in light of how not-so-great the Sleep spell has worked in this vanilla game, it has me wondering.
Then again it could just be that I've been getting lousy dice rolls for Sleep and great dice rolls for Color Spray, and it will eventually even out...
Of course now in Chapter 5, as the action is more funneled into completing the Iron Throne investigation, there aren't going to be as many opportunities to succeed with Color Spray (or Sleep). But Eldoth will be in charge for the next ten days; and re: choosing battles through which to strut his stuff it helps that Eldoth is a bard. It is at least plausible that he would have heard talk of quests in which use of Color Spray would probably shine. And he did have a lengthy conversation with Thalantyr, who may or may not have heard about various quest opportunities in the region (I'd flip a card or roll a die to determine which ones).
The true objective behind Eldoth's plan to demonstrate his battle and tactical prowess is to assume full leadership of the party. He is evil, so he would of course run the party exploitatively, and ultimately selfishly; and of course deceptively as well.