Cernd Badfather
dustbubsy
Member Posts: 249
I want to share my funniest Cernd story here. I've no idea if this has happened to anyone else, but it was so funny I remember it to this day.
It all started when we returned to Athkathla for the first time with Cernd in the party. I didn't intend to keep him permanently, just use every NPC a little while to do their personal quests. So if you've done Cernd's quest before you know the drill: Cernd meets old friend, old friend rejects him, Cernd visits old house, random beggar there insults him, Cernd visits old maid, old maid refuse to talk to him, Cernd visits his wife's new husband, who has their baby - we kill him, Cernd leaves the party to take the baby to the Druid Grove and asks us to meet him there.
Only it didn't happen that way. For some reason once we killed the guy holding the baby hostage, Cernd left the party but dropped the baby on his way out! I'd wager some of you didn't even know that there was an item for Cernd's boy as he essentially leaves the party with it and it's at the Grove by the time you recruit him back. But because of some full inventories and key items getting juggled around, we were left with a little baby-shaped sprite on the floor of Deril's estate.
Naturally, we picked up the child, wondering how Cernd could've been so remiss as to leave his son lying there. Strangely when we got to the Druid Grove, Cernd acted like he'd dropped the child off at the Grove and everything was fine. So we carried on our journey, only with a little baby tagging along.
The time came, as it does in every Cernd user's life, when we had to let him go. We put the baby into his inventory and bid him a fond farewell, removing him from the party. But again, we were thwarted - he thrust the baby back into our pockets before beating a hasty retreat!
Undeterred, we followed the deadbeat dad back to the Druid Grove. Since any attempt to give him his firstborn would result in a frustrating game of hot potato, we did the only thing we could: placed the child at his feet and left. When we returned to tie up some loose ends months later, we found the baby was still lying there, only now it was raining. Cernd didn't seem to notice.
It all started when we returned to Athkathla for the first time with Cernd in the party. I didn't intend to keep him permanently, just use every NPC a little while to do their personal quests. So if you've done Cernd's quest before you know the drill: Cernd meets old friend, old friend rejects him, Cernd visits old house, random beggar there insults him, Cernd visits old maid, old maid refuse to talk to him, Cernd visits his wife's new husband, who has their baby - we kill him, Cernd leaves the party to take the baby to the Druid Grove and asks us to meet him there.
Only it didn't happen that way. For some reason once we killed the guy holding the baby hostage, Cernd left the party but dropped the baby on his way out! I'd wager some of you didn't even know that there was an item for Cernd's boy as he essentially leaves the party with it and it's at the Grove by the time you recruit him back. But because of some full inventories and key items getting juggled around, we were left with a little baby-shaped sprite on the floor of Deril's estate.
Naturally, we picked up the child, wondering how Cernd could've been so remiss as to leave his son lying there. Strangely when we got to the Druid Grove, Cernd acted like he'd dropped the child off at the Grove and everything was fine. So we carried on our journey, only with a little baby tagging along.
The time came, as it does in every Cernd user's life, when we had to let him go. We put the baby into his inventory and bid him a fond farewell, removing him from the party. But again, we were thwarted - he thrust the baby back into our pockets before beating a hasty retreat!
Undeterred, we followed the deadbeat dad back to the Druid Grove. Since any attempt to give him his firstborn would result in a frustrating game of hot potato, we did the only thing we could: placed the child at his feet and left. When we returned to tie up some loose ends months later, we found the baby was still lying there, only now it was raining. Cernd didn't seem to notice.
31
Comments
But I think you mean the kid would've been better off without Cernd
We could go in to the details in that some people are simply born with mental disorders that make their actions completely out of whack with what might be expected of reasonable behaviour (I mean, maybe the child was born psychopathic), but considering the whole fantasy setting and the dev's 'love' of Cernd, I'm guessing we're meant to get the impression the whole thing is Cernd's fault.
Funny that the original devs gave Cernd such a downer of an ending - I guess they knew that they had created a character that no one would really care about, LOL.
Also, I find it both bizarre and a bit humorous that Cernd's response to feeling remorseful about being a negligent father was to set out to kill his son.
As for Cernd, I'll admit it. The dude is a bad father. Of course, I don't completely blame him for it though. The guy didn't even know he was a dad until he returned to Athkatla with the PC.
Except my father's not a smelly Therianthrope.
If you let Keldorn leave permanently after completing his personal quest to reconcile with his wife, then you see Keldorn turn into an attentive father who takes his kids off to the circus and promises to spend much more time with them in future. It's only if you insist that he stick to his stern duties and stay with you that he leaves his family again, and even then he promises them that it'll be the last time he leaves. His epilogue later confirms that he actually sticks to this promise, until one final adventure several years later (when his kids are probably grown up). I reckon Keldorn's kids would eventually have been proud of their father, even though his important duties had often kept him apart from them.
Cernd, on the other hand, continues to be an absentee father even after his world-saving adventures with Gorion's Ward are over and he no longer has a good excuse. That's seriously negligent.
Nevertheless, although I reckon Cernd is useless as a father, I've found him pretty useful as an adventuring companion - once you've figured out how to use him effectively, he's much better than some people here seem to realise.
As for Keldorn, he isn't as bad as Cernd, or Coran. Keldorn basically has father of the year when it comes to all the fathers in Baldur's Gate.
And look what happened to him... ;_;
Which is more a snark at the amount of horrible fathers throughout BG and BG2 then it is saying Gorion is 'good'.
I think the best father is that of the little girl at the waterfalls. I mean come on he uses high-level magic to bring cats back to life!