The Adventures of Gaspar: The Prequel-Sequel (ctrl+q playthrough)
Flashburn
Member Posts: 1,847
In which we shall see how many scripts we can ruin by brainwashing friends and foes alike.
@Elrandir wanted to see Gaspar's adventures from up and down the Sword Coast and I had been contemplating doing this ever since I finished BG2EE with Gaspar.
Once again (or is it the first time?), the rules are the same. Ctrl+Q forces a creature to join your party. In this playthrough, there will be 5 creatures plus CHARNAME in a party. If one dies in combat, they will not be raised and instead will be replaced with other random creatures. I'll try not to force bosses into the party, as tempting as that may be, for the sake of what little balance there will probably be in this playthrough. And to increase the diversity of party members, and to save myself equipment headaches, brainwashed allies will stick with only what they have.
There are only three mods in use that are relevant to this playthrough:
BG2Tweaks
Rogue Rebalancing
aTweaks
From back before he had greater aspirations, I present to you once again: the irresistible, charming, and still very much handsome Gaspar!
Episode 1: Humble Beginnings
I guess I should've been taking more screenshots, given that this is important to the beginning of a new playthrough. Buuuut I forgot about that for a while because I stole a Star Sapphire from the Candlekeep Inn and sold it for a thousand gold!! 25 CHA is going to REALLY come in handy in BG1! Oh yeah, and Firebead Elvenhair "offered" to join me after I gave him his Identify scroll back.
As we wandered about doing menial chores for the residents of Candlekeep, the first attempt on my life was made by Shank! He was quickly dispatched by a Magic Missile from Firebead. He only has a few spells at his disposal however.
Next I performed the trope popularized by Baldur's Gate and made customary by other WRPGs: rat-stomping!
Picture theme song: Weird Al Yankovic's "Weasel Stomping Day"
As thanks for a job well done, Reevor joined us.
The second attempt on my life was made by Carbos, who shared the same fate as his cohort Shank: a magic missile in the face!
Our other chores went by without incident, so I got Hull and Fuller to join us. Fuller gave me a +1 dagger!
Under Gorion's guiding hands, we all left Candlekeep. But during the night, we were ambushed by a huge armored man and his group of bandits! Thanks to my elven cat-like reflexes, I managed to avoid getting stuck with poisonous arrows. As I looked back, a lightning bolt struck the earth and I saw Gorion viciously slashed with the fiend's sword, crumpling to the ground!
The dawn was especially cruel that morning. Our party of five told Imoen to get lost. I had all the friends I would need on the Sword Coast. Hint: its everyone.
@Elrandir wanted to see Gaspar's adventures from up and down the Sword Coast and I had been contemplating doing this ever since I finished BG2EE with Gaspar.
Once again (or is it the first time?), the rules are the same. Ctrl+Q forces a creature to join your party. In this playthrough, there will be 5 creatures plus CHARNAME in a party. If one dies in combat, they will not be raised and instead will be replaced with other random creatures. I'll try not to force bosses into the party, as tempting as that may be, for the sake of what little balance there will probably be in this playthrough. And to increase the diversity of party members, and to save myself equipment headaches, brainwashed allies will stick with only what they have.
There are only three mods in use that are relevant to this playthrough:
BG2Tweaks
Rogue Rebalancing
aTweaks
From back before he had greater aspirations, I present to you once again: the irresistible, charming, and still very much handsome Gaspar!
Just keep pretending he's human alright?
Episode 1: Humble Beginnings
I guess I should've been taking more screenshots, given that this is important to the beginning of a new playthrough. Buuuut I forgot about that for a while because I stole a Star Sapphire from the Candlekeep Inn and sold it for a thousand gold!! 25 CHA is going to REALLY come in handy in BG1! Oh yeah, and Firebead Elvenhair "offered" to join me after I gave him his Identify scroll back.
As we wandered about doing menial chores for the residents of Candlekeep, the first attempt on my life was made by Shank! He was quickly dispatched by a Magic Missile from Firebead. He only has a few spells at his disposal however.
Next I performed the trope popularized by Baldur's Gate and made customary by other WRPGs: rat-stomping!
Picture theme song: Weird Al Yankovic's "Weasel Stomping Day"
As thanks for a job well done, Reevor joined us.
The second attempt on my life was made by Carbos, who shared the same fate as his cohort Shank: a magic missile in the face!
Our other chores went by without incident, so I got Hull and Fuller to join us. Fuller gave me a +1 dagger!
Under Gorion's guiding hands, we all left Candlekeep. But during the night, we were ambushed by a huge armored man and his group of bandits! Thanks to my elven cat-like reflexes, I managed to avoid getting stuck with poisonous arrows. As I looked back, a lightning bolt struck the earth and I saw Gorion viciously slashed with the fiend's sword, crumpling to the ground!
The dawn was especially cruel that morning. Our party of five told Imoen to get lost. I had all the friends I would need on the Sword Coast. Hint: its everyone.
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Still reeling from Gorion's loss, we rounded out our party with the infamous wolf that preys on the inexperienced.
On the way to the Friendly Arm Inn, we encountered an ogre with a belt fetish. Nothing our party couldn't handle!
The third attempt on my life was made by Tarnesh. Luckily, my entourage made sure I was unharmed. Firebead scored the final blow again with Magic Missile.
After resting and earning 9000 gold (!!) from Evermemory, we took on our very first quest! We had to retrieve a ring from some hobgoblins for a woman named Joia. Things went well at first, but a storm suddenly blew our way. This normally wouldn't have bothered any of us but Hull got struck by lightning three times in a row and turned on us!
We did get the ring back from the hobgoblins and the lightning finished off Hull before we had to take action against him. We dumped his body and brainwashed a hobgoblin. In true ctrl+Q fashion, I decided to name him Xavier.
Now we venture onward to Beregost!
We got to Beregost where we easily fought back against my fourth assassination attempt. Firebead once again got the kill on Karlat. With 88 HP, I doubt Firebead is going to leave our company anytime soon. One our way out, the bard Garrick directed us to his mistress for mercenary work. I still needed more cash because, despite my already considerable riches, I couldn't afford the Shadow Armor yet. She raised our pay to 400 gold because I'm just SO good-looking, but she was obviously not right in the head. We doubled-crossed her but she zapped Reevor with a fearsome lightning bolt before we killed her.
With Silke out of the way, Feldepost's men thanked us and went on their way, as did we. We headed south of Beregost and encountered some ogrillons. Weakened by Silke's lightning bolt, they killed Reevor!
To replace Reevor, I brainwashed another Hobgoblin that I'll name Bruce.
We were ambushed as we left the area south of Beregost by skeletons and a ghoul! The hobgoblins Xavier and Bruce died, as well as the n00b-eating wolf. Nothing lasts forever, as Buddhists say.
Who will replace them? Find out on the next episode!
Right after we left the ambush, we got a replacement puppy in the form of a Dread Wolf that I will name Magnus.
We saved Melicamp the chicken from another wolf. Magnus wanted to keep Melicamp in his mouth like a retriever but I firmly told him no and put him in my backpack. South of where we found Melicamp, I converted a ghast named Ghibli and we encountered a small group of three hobgoblins. Zargal loudly proclaimed himself as the strongest of all, so I converted him to my cause. Though he sure didn't last long against his former friends.
East of that battle, we spied on Bassilus who was surrounded by an intimidatingly large group of zombies and skeletons. Using my god-like charisma, I was able to shatter his delusions which were the animating force behind most of the undead. The battle began in earnest!
Hull became confused and walked away from the battle. With Firebead's help, the battle was over quick enough, but Ghibli the ghast died. His paralyzation didn't work on the already-dead so the skeletons easily took him down with their crossbows.
I'd heard around Beregost that Bassilus was a wanted man, so I'll return his holy symbol for a bounty sometime. Next episode, we go wherever fate takes us!
The next parts are kind of boring because its just me and some creatures wandering around the Sword Coast doing whatever. I don't like this part about BG1.
We went back to Beregost and exterminated the spiders in Landrin's house, but they poisoned and killed Fuller so it was just me and Firebead.
We turned in the bounty for Bassilus and earned another small fortune of 5000 gold. Then we went to High Hedge and got Melicamp turned back into a human on the first try. Near the spider house in High Hedge, I brainwashed a giant spider, two ghouls, and a ghast named Kenny.
The first ghoul easily fell to a pack of dart-throwing skeletons but was replaced later with a Carrion Crawler that I'll name Sheldon.
Southeast of the shipwreck, we brawled with a pack of ogres and ogrillons, losing the second ghoul in the process and replacing him with The Surgeon, who is actually a level 6 fighter.
Tune in next time for more boring filler. Yawn.
We stumbled across a hobgoblin and his retinue of kobolds and tasloi spying on an archeological dig. The kobolds were roasted by Firebead's Agannazar's Scorcher while Sheldon, Kenny, and the spider focused on Ba'ruk. Kenny was killed in the melee.
We helped the men of the dig site but a Doomsayer wanted the Idol of Kozah returned. It didn't give us time to give it back and it lashed out at us. It killed the rest of our party except for me and Firebead. I'm beginning to wonder if Firebead is ever going to get killed. Probably not with those 88 HP of his.
Next we returned Brage to Nashkel, thwarted the fifth assassination attempt, and pillaged the Xvart village. I brainwashed Ursa, Nexlit, another cave bear, and four more Xvarts to help us in the raid.
The first of my Bhaal powers began to surface. I can heal wounds with a touch, sort of like a paladin.
We countered another bandit ambush and their leader Neville was struck down by Talos' wrath.
Next time there will probably be more wandering the Coast...
- "Sheeeeeeldoooooon!!!"
- *carrion crawler screechings*
- "Come here! We need to go!!"
- *carrion crawler screechings*
- "What? I don't care if you want to finish eating that tasloi corpse, you've already eaten three of them plus five kobolds! Are you an endless pit or what? Sooner or later all that will come out from you from the other side and I really don't want to be anywhere near to you when it will happen!!!"
_ *carrion crawler screechings*
- *more carrion crawler screechings*
- "Ok, don't worry, it's all ok."
- *carrion crawler screechings*
- "Yeeees, I love you too, now let's go."
- *carrion crawler screechings*
- "Oooooh, shut up!"
However... I feel a little sad after the Surgeon's departure...
I took a short break because I was busy RIPPING AND TEARING my way through hell as Doomguy in Brutal Doom. Holy crap is that mod satisfying, bad guys just melting before the power of the super shotty; blood and body parts just soaking entire rooms... It's a paladin's dream, going into hell itself and cleansing it of evil. So anyway, where were we?
We got to the Valley of the Tombs and I refused to give the revenant the magical dagger. I prefer short swords, but I'm not gonna pass up a free +2 dagger. Naturally the creature had reservations about that so we battled! I had previously brainwashed two hobgoblins but this is where they died.
Outside the tomb, we encountered a strange fellow named Narcillicus Harwilliger Neen. He had been obsessed over creating jellies to serve his whims and had fashioned a spell to do it. At first he was apprehensive about sharing his secret, but it was nothing a little brainwashing couldn't fix. Unfortunately he seemed to have forgotten it once he summoned these jellies. Cursed Vancian magic systems!
At least his mustard jellies will useful...
And now, something most shocking: Firebead Elvenhair was finally killed in my sixth assassination attempt! The wounds he accumulated over time added up and his last hit point was drained by poison. Oh well. Still, he was the longest-surviving brainwashee in either game (so far) so lets take a moment to reflect on how useful yet expendable he was.
Next episode will be more upbeat and Firebead gets replaced with someone far more powerful...
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I gave the jellies Boots of Speed because they're sooooo slooooooww. They also need names, so Gram and Petri will do for now.
As we crossed Firewine Bridge, we recruited the Illmatari Benton and the bard Poe. But ol' Narcy was starting to act strange and violent toward us. I will not tolerate my minions turning on their master, so I killed him and took his jellies with me.
Fortunately that meant there was an open spot in the party. I brainwashed the powerful ogre mage Karhk to join us! His stats are ridiculously high with at least 16 in everything except in WIS and CHA. His STR and DEX are 19 and 18 which are absurdly good and he is under a permanent Haste spell, so he gets 4 attacks!
Karhk has several useful spells available to him. I wish he came with Fireball instead of Lightning Bolt, but if the mists from BG2 have taught me anything, its that Lightning Bolt can be extremely powerful if used right. Karhk easily slashed his way through all the kobolds of the dungeon but his wounds were mounting. Those fire arrows the kobolds launch are not mundane...
In just a few minutes, we were already challenging the bosses to a fight. The mustard jellies easily overwhelmed the unprepared mage and Karkh followed up a flame arrow with a slash to his fellow ogre magister.
We put an end to the kobold invasions of Gullykin. South of the village, we killed ANOTHER group of would-be assassins, making this 7 Gaspar, 0 them. Poe casted an aTweak'd Color Spray which put me out of commission for the battle, but all except one of the bad guys failed the save as well. Pretty though!
Gram and Petri are useful even if they are slow. Being amorphous creatures of slime and water, they are immune to petrification. They did most of the work against the basilisks, and I figured out right quick that basilisks are not immune to their own gaze attacks and can be petrified as well, rendering them useless to me.
Korax the ghoul joined us and helped Gram and Petri fight the lizards. By paralyzing them, he guaranteed the jellies free hits. But to quote a Blind Guardian song, "Joyful it seems, but / then suddenly, / by one false move its blown away," with Poe being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nevermore will that bard sing for us.
Mutamin, codename "Mr. Psycho Gnome," was the man responsible for unleashing the basilisks. A vacancy had just opened up due to our recently petrified bard and Mutamin will be filling in his place.
Next episode, we will probably finally be heading to the Nashkel Mines.
I've already done some areas off-screen but before I head into the mines, I want to make sure I don't forget a map. Ulcaster is just in that vacant spot near Firewine and Durlag's Tower which makes it easy for me to forget that its there. That's why the encounter with Dorn made me remember. Mutamin was acting up like Narcillicus was so Dorn put him down for me. I would've taken him with me just for being so considerate, but that's against the rules of this playthrough. Sorry Dorn, its nothing personal.
So we got to Ulcaster and beat Icharyd easily. A problem lay with another enemy mustard jelly and our party was full! The only ones that could deal damage to it were Petri and Gram. Gram was killed and slime-to-slime combat was not particularly thrilling, so the rest of us left to explore the rest of the ruins.
I tamed some wolves to fight for us to replace the hobgoblins I brainwashed offscreen. Meanwhile, Petri finally won the slime battle so he crawled back over to us.
And then my 97 detect traps didn't notice a fireball trap which killed two of our wolves. D'oh.
The fight with the vampiric wolf went over well enough and I replaced more our ranks again with more wolves. I'll call them Spot, Rover, and Sparky.
Next episode we'll definitely be going into the mines.
Offscreen we took care of the problem with Prism and Greywolf, so now it was time to head into the mines. It had gone without incident until Rover died in the deepest part of the mines. We replaced him with Plucky the kobold.
In the furthest reaches of the mine, in a coccoon-shaped dome of rock, lay Mulahey. He was the one in charge of the kobolds and made them taint the iron. We killed him and his reinforcements and then freed Xan.
Documents on Mulahey said that he was working for higher-ups, as is often the case in organized crime. Tranzig was his liaison with someone called Tazok so we paid him a little visit at Feldepost's Inn.
On our way to the bandit camp in Peldvale, we came across some of Tazok's lackeys and dispatched them. Plucky and Spot died in the engagement and were replaced with Ted.
We arrived at the bandit camp and started slaughtering bandits wholesale. I tried to brainwash Tersus but he was one of the few creatures that resisted my gaze attack. I tried to steal stuff from a chest and Tersus turned hostile.
When we got to the main tent, I had killed Ted myself for his cowardice. He was always running away from battles and I need minions that are fanatically loyal to me. But that was okay. Petri and I poisoned the mage while Karhk took care of anyone that tried to get into melee range with me. Sparky was killed in this fight, so my trio of wolves are no more.
We freed Ender Sai and saw that the bandits' main base of operations was Cloakwood. There was one loose end I needed to tie up though. According to the documents in the chest behind Ender Sai, an assassin called Nimbul was still waiting for me in Nashkel. Technically this would be the eighth attempt on my life but this time, we ambushed him.
Next episode, we venture deep into the Cloakwood...
There are some creatures that have assigned classes and some that don't have any classes at all. Every creature gets XP even if they're classless and it is kept track of, just hidden from the character sheet. If you try to level up a "classless" NPC, the game will crash. (See: last picture of the first post in Gaspar's BG2EE adventure)
After a couple days of travel, we got to the Cloakwood. Ironically enough, we found the tasloi that stole Gurke's Cloak of Non-detection. Getting anything stolen from you by a group this pathetically weak has got to be embarassing.
Nearby, we tried to peacefully resolve a conflict between Aldeth Sashenstar and the local druids. The druids turned on us so we fought back.
In the next part of the woods, I converted 3 giant spiders to help us. They're not very tough but their poison is always useful.
We entered the Centeol's cave and were beleaguered by more spiders. Once again, the only ones left alive were me, Karhk, and Petri.
We returned Chelak's body and obtained Spider's Bane. In Cloakwood 3 we converted the Archdruid, some baby wyverns, and a cave bear. We used them to assault the wyvern nest in Cloakwood 4 to get the bounty that Coran told us about. Again, only us 3 main good guys survived the fight. I am wondering if Karhk and Petri will last as long as Firebead...
Some guards apparently heard the battle and ambushed us. The joke was on them though, because I brainwashed 3 out of the 4.
Now its time to go through some more mines and figure out who's really behind all this.
We got to the entrance of the Cloakwood mines and were greeted by some more guards that were expecting us. You know what I always say? Always kill the mouthy one, that's what I always say.
The guards we converted already betrayed us. I have no patience for turncoats so I hired some new ones after disposing of the old ones.
As we barged our way into the deeper parts of the mines, we were caught in an all-out melee! Karhk's lightning bolts did most of the work as we mopped up the rest.
And so we progressed even deeper with nothing really of note...
...until we got to the boss of the mines, Davaeorn. He must have known we were coming as he was already buffed with a few spells. He was tough and took a big chunk of health out of our party with a potent fireball.
We won the fight but I made it out alive, levelling up, but with many burns.
The Iron Throne was behind the whole iron crisis and their home base is in Baldur's Gate itself. It is my next target.
Usually at this point in the game I take on Drizzt. I'm not sure how this happened, but Drizzt got stuck as he attempted to path his way toward the closest member of my party. The gnoll army was especially helpful in speeding things along but it still took a while.
Many turns and natural 20s later...
I can deal with the reputation hit since it reset me back to 10. Now I'm in Baldur's Gate proper.
The many sidequests of Baldur's Gate await! I'm not going to detail every single one of them because that would take waaaayy too long, so I'll only use pictures that deal with the main plot or replacing dead party members.
I took another break because I wanted to replay MegaMan 4-6 since I've only ever beaten them once, and then I got the urge to replay NWN2 with some mods. Battle of the Builds in particular got me hooked because I wanted to try to beat the best of NWN2's PvP builds. I beat a lot of them but some of them are just plain immortal (looking at you, Lord of the Mountain). ANYWAY
I forgot to mention that the second mustard jelly came from Davaeorn's treasure room. I shall call him Louis. I wonder if anyone will figure out the naming scheme I've got going on for jellies.
We intruded on some mages on the upper floor of Sorcerous Sundries. I was quick to remind them that in a place such as that, personal space isn't really public or private and blahblahblah. One of them went mad and started slinging spells, so all the rest followed suit.
Since I was in the area, I ran into another ogre mage with several carrion crawlers as pets. We put a stop to his evil schemes. Karhk was badly wounded since he was paralyzed by one of the crawlers.
Since I was doing nearly all the sidequests of Baldur's Gate off-screen, I forgot to go to the lighthouse area with all the sirens. I cleared them out but Karkh was finally done in by a Flesh Golem. Karkh lasted about as long as Firebead but I'm glad that I get to brainwash others that will fall more easily.
The rest of the sidequests were completed. I lost Petri but brainwashed 2 Doom Guards and a Helmed Horror. And now we're back in Candlekeep to stop the Iron Throne's plans for good.
For all the damage they've caused the Sword Coast, and for the numerous attempts on my life, I killed the Iron Throne leaders.
But of course we got in trouble for it because evil's got everyone in their pockets. Luckily Tethtoril bailed us out and teleported us into the catacombs of Candlekeep. But...
Doppelgangers had killed all my friends in Candlekeep and took their bodies!! Naturally I was especially devastated when they took Elminster's and Gorion's forms. I powered myself up with the Manual of Gainful Exercise and killed every last doppelganger that dared to take on any of my friends' faces.
Once they were all slain, I'm sure they would appreciate it and find peace. On the way out of the catacombs, we were ambushed yet again by Iron Throne cronies. The Helmed Horror was killed in the battle but everyone else made it out okay.
And now we're hiding out in Ulgoth's Beard for a while since I'm a wanted man in Baldur's Gate. I guess we'll do some stuff here as we wait for the heat to die down.
I guess you can just read any of @Blackraven 's playthroughs to get the willpower.
I'm actually amazed BG1 feels less fun. To many of the forumites, it's the other way round.
What can be more funnier than to travel with Larry, Darryl & Darryl in one party!