It is over, Sarevok is dead. The shadow that he has cast over my life has been lifted, and I am finally free to carry on with my life unmolested by assassins and conspiracies.
In the end, he made no effort to run or hide, though reaching him was no walk through the park. Once we made our way through the Thieves' Maze, filled with traps and ancient undead guardians, we found ourselves in the ruins of whatever civilisation that once stood before Baldur's Gate was built on top of it. Mindless undead ghouls proved little more than a nuisance, but a group of bounty hunters sent by the Iron Throne's central headquarters proved far more dangerous. Thankfully, given that we were wary of any traps or ambushes Sarevok might have left for us, we were aware of the bounty hunters before they were aware of us, allowing for a decisive first strike against an otherwise potent enemy.
Deeper into the Under City, we came upon one of the only buildings that had not crumbled into ruin... a Temple of Bhaal. I knew then that Sarevok awaited within. He must have still hoped that defeating me in a shrine devoted our divine father, might somehow still prove his worth to inherit the power of murder. Before we could confront Sarevok however, Tamoko stood guard outside the temple. The look in her eyes told me that there could be no negotiation, no alternative, and that she would offer battle as she had promised. She was a brave and honourable warrior, and so I engaged her in battle on equal terms, without the assistance of my companions. I took no comfort in taking her life, but I had no choice.
Within the Temple Sarevok awaited with three of his most fanatical followers. Angelo, a former officer of the Flaming Fists, and likely the man responsible for Scar's death. Tazok, the brutish half-ogre and field commander of Sarevok's mercenaries and a mage who I'd later learn was named Semaj. Our strategy was similar to what we did in the Ducal Palace. Namely Neera attempted to control the battlefield with Web and various other disabling spells, whilst we were able to operate reasonably freely with Free Movement enchantment.
Semaj was the first to fall. Keen to avoid the sticky webs that quickly covered half of the temple, he teleported straight towards us, where Imoen and Khalid quickly brought down his protection spells with Dispelling Arrows, leaving him vulnerable to blade and missiles alike. Angelo proved to be far more dangerous. His spell protections meant that he was unaffected by Neera's webs, and he fired a barrage of explosive Arrows of Detonation at us, causing immense damage that we barely mitigated by summoning war dogs to distract him, whilst shooting back with our own Biting Arrows and Magic Missiles.
Driven on by sheer hatred and madness, the webs did not hold Sarevok long, even as Tazok struggled to free himself, and soon the armoured behemoth fell upon us with unnatural ferocity. It took the combined strength of Jaheira, Yeslick and myself to hold him at bay, and we all suffered serious gashes and bruises trying to do so. The tide finally turned when Khalid, Neera and Imoen had finally silenced Angelo's firepower, and were able to add their own ranged support to our combat efforts.
As a barrage of Magic Missiles struck Sarevok for the umpteenth time, sending him staggering briefly, I saw my opening and struck Heaven Reliant deep into a small chink in his blackened armour. As life itself drained from his body, I could sense the essence of Bhaal leaving with it, and within moments, Sarevok's earthly form had disintegrated into dust. Seeing his master vanquished before his very eyes, Tazok finally dropped his weapons in surrender and despair. Yeslick offered him no such mercy, and caved in his chest with his warhammer.
And so ends this dark chapter of my life. It has only been a little more than a hundred days since I left Candlekeep on that fateful morning with Gorion. I feel as if a decade has passed since then, as I met lifelong friends and companions and overcame perils I could not have fathomed. I have suffered the terrible pain of loss, and the discovery of my dark heritage, but I have also experienced the ecstasy of victory and the warmth of friendship and love. I left Candlekeep a boy, I am now a man.
Reloads
No. 17: I forgot about the Arrows of Detonation one of the bounty hunters packed... Despite managing to catch the them with Web, the "archer of fiery death" made most of his saves and wreaked havoc upon my party.
No. 18: I didn't managed to get a screencap, but once ,my party took a battering from Arrows of Detonation, fired by Angelo this time. Crucially this left Jin weakened, and he went down in seconds when Sarevok suddenly burst from the webs and sliced and diced him before I could retreat.
Nice job. Well done. I trust we will see our blade wielding friend continue into BG2?
Absolutely, I hate loose ends!
Some reflections at the end of the BG1 journey first, in no particular order...
1) I discovered a few new spells that were game changing. (I say discover, I mean I used them for the first time.) Silence makes a lot of BG1 mages trivial, casting Slow on the enemy is as good as casting Haste on your party, minus the fatigue factor, which matters when I play limited-rest, and also didn't really want to cast any spells on my party with Neera.
2) Wild Mages are over-rated. Okay perhaps I just haven't worked out how to use Neera properly, but just the risk of crippling surges meant that I couldn't use her for any protection or buffing spells, and although her surges only caused one direct reload, there were a few close-calls where a much needed spell didn't fire off properly. I only recall one positive wild surge where she double-webbed a pack of dire wolves and vampiric wolves.
3) BG1NPC Project is awesome! I am so grateful to @AstroBryGuy for bringing it up to date for BG:EE.
4) I know the melee metagame is beeline to dual-wielding asap, but Single Weapon style is not that bad. It helps with survivability in BG1 and against tough enemies who you'd struggle to hit with anything other than a critical roll, it's not bad having essentially double chance of rolling criticals.
5) The best thing about Minsc (aside from Boo) is his carrying capacity! Not having anyone with more than Str 15 for large parts of the game made inventory management really. For roleplay purposes I never loot non-magical weapons and armour anyway, but in this game I had to ignore some +1 stuff too because I didn't want to make repeated shop trips.
6) On the subject of strength. Strength potions are game changing. (Potions are in general) They last 2 hours, which means that towards the end game, all my warriors had 20+ strength almost permanently! Potion of Invulnerability is also a life-saver for a Kensai. Long duration means that I don't think of them as short-term pre-buffs, so I have no roleplay problems with using before a likely battle.
For the inaugural entry of my new diary, this is as inauspicious as it gets. I have started a new journal because my old diary is lost, but that pales into insignificance compared to everything else that I have lost recently.
A few weeks ago I was attacked by shadowy figures in the night, and along with my companions, Imoen, Jaheira and Khalid, incapacitated and captured. I woke after an unknown period of time, face to face with my captor, a mage whose name I would later learn to be Irenicus. I have no knowledge of him beyond his name and the fact that he possesses immense power, and a callous disregard for others that sends a chill down my spine.
I was separated from my companions, utterly alone and locked within a cage so small that I could not lie down to rest. For a few days Irenicus did not even acknowledge my existence, but when he did, I wished he had continued to ignore me. He made no demands or offers, and simply proceeded to conduct "experiments" on me, and by experiment, I mean torture. He ranted ceaselessly about unlocking the power within whilst he inflicted unimaginable pain upon my body and mind. In my darkest moments, I feared that I was losing my very sanity as nightmare and reality blurred until I could no longer tell them apart... all the while something primal and terrifying struggled to be unleashed.
I had hoped that with the death of Sarevok, Aluando's Prophecy had been thwarted, and that the legacy of my dark heritage could be forgotten. Alas, though I hate to admit it, the essence of the dead god of murder lives on within me, and whatever Irenicus has done has brought it closer to the surface. I think it is that very essence that has kept me alive through the horrific torment that I have been subjected to, though I fear it is also that very essence that drew Irenicus to me and my companions in the first place.
After what felt like an eternity, I was suddenly woken after my latest session of torment by Imoen. At first I thought it was an illusion, or a cruel trick, but she freed me from my cage and shook me to my senses. The dungeon that we were held in was under attack. Though it did not appear to be a rescue operation for our benefit, the chaos gave Imoen the opportunity to escape from her own cell. I was relieved that she was alive, though the scar on her face and the look in her eyes told me that she had not been spared from suffering either, and I was too afraid to ask what he had done to her and why.
Thankfully, shortly after our escape, we found Jaheira, who seemed in reasonably good health in comparison to Imoen and I, and she would prove instrumental in our great escape, seeing as my sword arm was shattered and useless, and Imoen was still just beginning to master basic magic. As we (by we, I mean Imoen and Jaheira) battled our way through corridors patrolled by goblins and Duergar, we made the sickening discovery of Khalid's body, mutilated almost beyond recognition. Imoen claimed that she saw Irenicus kill Khalid with a simple death spell, before inflicting the horrific injuries to his body to "show her death"... I can only hope that she was telling the truth. Khalid is too noble, courageous and decent of a man to deserve such a cruel fate.
Past rooms filled with glass jars that held... human remains... that were somehow still alive, Jaheira slew a monstrous Otyugh with nothing but a club in what can only described as a waste disposal pit. Beyond there we stumbled into a bizarre plane of air that was revealed to be the home of a Djinni enslaved by Irenicus. The Djinni promised to return Heaven Reliant to me if we helped to free him from Irenicus. I had thought that my precious blade was lost to me, and deeply relieved that the Djinni honoured his promise when we returned with the lamp that freed him. Unfortunately, the return of Heaven Reliant did not restore my sword arm, so it could make little difference to our immediate circumstances.
We also came upon other victims of Irenicus in our efforts to escape. There was a trio of Dryads he had enslaved as concubines, who we promised to free by delivering their acorns to their grove in the Windspear Hills. We also happened upon a Kozakuran warrior called Yoshimo, whose story seemed similar to our own- attacked in the night, captured and tortured for our captor's amusement. We gladly welcomed his bow and katana to our company. Together the four of us battled through more Duergar, mephits and others before finally finding the exit leading to the surface, where a battle raged between Irenicus and the assailants that stormed his dungeon.
Only now did we witness the awesome power that Irenicus possessed. He slew droves of warriors that threw themselves at him with fanatical courage. Judging by their garb, and the fact that we later discovered that we were in Athkatla, the capital of Amn, we suspect the warriors to be the infamous Shadow Thieves of Amn. However, they stood no chance in the face of Irenicus' sorcery. Soon the air crackled with arcane energy and a squad of hooded, or rather cowled, mages teleported into the fray, demanding that Irenicus cease his spellcasting.
Our captor slaughtered the mages with contemptuous ease, but more and more of them teleported into battle, until eventually, Irenicus just stopped, and calmly agreed to hand himself into the custody of the mages we'd later know as Cowled Wizards. He had a condition though... that Imoen must be taken with him! To my astonishment and shock, the Cowled Wizards accepted his offer and took Imoen in broad daylight, teleporting her away before I could react and then teleporting away themselves, without so much as offering any explanation for their actions!
As the smoke from the battle settled, we realised that we were in the famous Waukeen's Promenade of Athkatla, a place I had read about, but never imagined visiting, let alone in such circumstances. Battered, bruised and exhausted beyond physical endurance, we stumbled into the nearest inn for much needed rest. Tomorrow we shall head to the Government District at first light to demand Imoen's release and an explanation for the torment we have been through, and Khalid... what he did to Khalid.
I realised that my updates are pretty lengthy, and with pictures included, a page of this thread can take a long time to load. So I think I'll split Jin's journals from ooc reflections about the game.
This BG2:EE playthrough will use the same "house rules" as I listed in the original post at the very start of the thread. Although BG2 characters are significantly less vulnerable than BG1 ones, I am even more nervous about permanent death because only one character (Neera) will be protected from this point onwards, so I need to be extra vigilant at all times.
I am still playing on Core Rules, though I have made a few minor changes to the game. In addition to a few cosmetic changes:
1) I removed Anomen's proficiency in slings and put it into Flails. (Given that I have completely embargoed slings for all my characters, this seems fair.)
2) I increased Charname's experience to 250k so that he hit lv9 Kensai at the very start, allowing me to begin the dual-class process from the offset. I did this so that my roleplay choices did not overly penalize my character. If I dual-classed at lv8, Charname would not obtain his first proficiency point in Dual-Wielding until endgame SoA or early ToB (3M xp). Besides it's not hard to imagine that he did Adventure Y and gained 100k xp to make up the difference between BG1 and BG2.
3) I created a new version of Heaven Reliant +3. It replaces Celestial Fury and Daystar from my game.
Heaven Reliant +3
Combat abilities: – Eighteen Dragons: Hit target must save vs. Spell or be stunned for 1 round – Nine Yin Strike: 5% chance of an extra 20 electrical damage to hit target
Charge abilities: – Sunray once per day Damage: 3d6 (Save vs. Spell or be blinded for 1 turn) Undead: An additional 1d6 points of damage per level of caster (Save vs. Spell or be destroyed) Range: 20 ft. Area: 30-ft. radius
– Fireshield (Red) Fire Resistance: +50% Special: Any who strike the user within a 5-ft.radius suffers 1d8+2 fire damage Duration: 18 rounds Area of Effect: The user
Equipped abilities: – Armor Class: +1
THAC0: +3 Damage: 1d8+3 (slashing or piercing) Speed Factor: 1 Proficiency type: Long Sword Type: One-handed Requires: 6 Strength
Weight: 3
4) This isn't really a change, but I pretended that Minsc was not in the cage in the dungeon. This means that I cannot use him in ToB, and in the short term it made the normally routine escape from Chateu Irenicus very interesting indeed given that I had a useless Charname (due to dual-classing) and "house-rules" that prevented resting. So the great escape was heavily reliant on Jaheira and the careful rationing of spells, potions and scrolls. I left the dungeon with pretty much just the clothes on their backs!
Day 5, 6 Mirtul, 1369 Amn is sick, sick with a cancerous corruption at its very core. It is no wonder evil such as Irenicus was able to take root within the heart of Athkatla. The government is inept and detached from its people, violence and injustice runs rampant and the law serves the rich and powerful, and not the people it is supposed to protect.
We spent nearly a whole day being bounced from one government official to another, none of whom would, or could, provide any explanation for what we had been subjected to beneath Waukeen's Promenade. The Cowled Wizards are apparently above the law, and serve as judge, jury and executioner when it comes to issues of sorcery within the city. They hold people they consider to be "deviants" in a facility known as Spellhold, but nobody even knows where it is, and those taken by the wizards are never seen again! It is absurd that such an organisation is tolerated within what is supposedly the greatest civilisation in Faerun!
Having run only into dead ends through official channels, we began our own investigation into the Cowled Wizards and Irenicus, starting at Waukeen's Promenade, where it all happened. The dungeon itself had been completely sealed in by tonnes of rock and soil, likely due to structural damage caused by the intense battle near the entrance. However, we found quite a commotion at a circus tent nearby.
A line of Amnish soldiers were holding back a crowd of hysterical civilians. Apparently dozens of people were trapped within the circus, and all who had gone within to investigate had not returned. The Amnish soldiers were waiting for Cowled Wizards for help, but the wizards seemed unconcerned with the peril of the common folk. Given the proximity to the dungeon where we were held, we volunteered to investigate the circus, hoping to find clues before the Cowled Wizards eventually arrived.
The moment we entered the circus, it seemed as if we had been transported to another plane once more, though in time we'd discover that it was a series of powerful illusions that were strong enough to cause real death and injury. In the ground level of the tower of illusions, we came upon all manner of vicious monsters near a group of civilians. Just before we leapt into action to save what seemed like defenceless circus-goers, one of the "monsters", an ogre, spoke with a most sweet voice, warning us that it was all an illusion, and that the monsters were people and the people were monsters.
Jaheira verified the "ogre's" claim with her divine magic before we slew the real monsters and restored her to her real form. The transformation could not be more dramatic... from a brutish ogre to an elegant elf whose beauty took my breath away. She introduced herself as Aerie, and explained that a gnome illusionist by the name of Kalah, was responsible for the outrage. Aerie turned out to be a capable mage and cleric, and lent her spells to our efforts as we battled our way through yet more illusions before confronting Kalah himself. In the end Kalah proved to be much weaker than the illusions he was responsible for, though he did not divulge the identity of his benefactor before his demise. We could find no evidence linking Irenicus to the disturbance at the circus.
After making sure that her adoptive "uncle", a gnome called Quayle, was fine, and tending to the wounds of survivors from the circus, Aerie offered to join our company in gratitude for our rescue after we told her of our circumstances. I am most grateful for her company.
Apart from Heaven Reliant, we had lost all the wealth and valuables we had obtained from our adventures further north, and staying in the Mithrest was not an option we could afford for the long run, so we went to the slums in search of cheaper accommodation. Shortly after arriving in the slums we were approached by a shady figure who introduced himself as Gaelen Bayle. The man seemed to know much of our situation, and claimed that his associates, who he refused to name, could help us rescue Imoen... in exchange for 20,000 gold!
I have a number of theories regarding this man's identity and motivation. He could be a simple low-life conman who might have witnessed the disturbance in Waukeen's Promenade, and intends to take the gold and run. More likely, he works for the Shadow Thieves, though whether they have the will or the ability to rescue Imoen, I do not know. The third possibility is that he works for the Cowled Wizards themselves, and this is their version of an extortion racket. In any case we have no gold to speak of, and we would do well to avoid giving away backpack loads of it to strangers.
Taking leave of Gaelen Bayle, we found our way to the Copper Coronet, an inn in the roughest part of town, where our limited gold would last the longest. We walked in on what I initially thought was a random bar brawl, until we realised that the guards were fighting just one man, a warrior-cleric of Helm. Given the numerous times that priests of Helm have nursed myself and members of my party to health from serious injuries, and the virtuous Helmites we have generally encountered, we leapt into action to help the lone warrior.
The guards retreated in the face of our intervention, and the warrior introduced himself as Anomen, an aspiring knight of the Order of the Radiant Heart. He had discovered that the Copper Coronet was involved in all manner illegal and immoral activity, the most heinous of which was the use of slaves in gladiatorial pit fights for the amusement of its richer patrons. Together with Anomen, we subdued the owner of the institution and stormed the backrooms, where we discovered prostitutes, stores of Black Lotus and cells filled with slaves, including gladiators and children. Once freed, the leader of the slaves, Hendak, led the gladiators in a general uprising, chasing off the remaining guards. I saw no reason to intervene as Hendak executed the thoroughly unpleasant owner in retribution for years of suffering, and took the Copper Coronet for himself and other former-slaves.
Hendak offered his sincere gratitude, but informed us that the slaver menace was not confined to the Copper Coronet, and that a bigger base of operations was hidden to the east the slums. Of course the Amnish guards had been bribed to turn a blind eye to the most vile practise being carried out in the heart of the capital, so we took the law into our own hands. Together with freed gladiators, we stormed the slaver compound, killing scores of the bastards and freeing dozens of slaves, including children.
Aerie, who had seemed shy and somewhat uncomfortable with violence, appeared especially determined in this battle. When I asked her about this, she explained her sorrowful tale. She is in fact an Avariel, an winged elf, who was captured by slavers when she was just a child. They locked her in a tiny cage, causing her wings to atrophy until her "owners" hacked them off with a rusty saw, and sold her onto the circus as she was no longer valuable. My heart ached for Aerie as she told her tale, and I understood why she felt so strongly for all the children locked in cages by the slavers.
With the slavers in the slums smashed, Anomen offered his thanks and service. I was of course very grateful to have another ally on this dangerous and uncertain path, though having spoken more with Anomen, he is not quite the noble Helmite I initially thought. He DOES seek to do good, but he seems to do it for the glory and respect that he feels he deserves, rather than actually seeking to help those in need. That said he is a most capable warrior and I'd gladly endure a few tall tales and grand boasts if he could help us rescue Imoen and visit retribution upon Irenicus.
It has been a tenday since Imoen was taken, and though we have covered much ground, we have made frustratingly little progress towards her rescue, and I am starting to think that my "divine heritage" has somehow cursed me with misfortune so that trouble follows me like moth to flame. I have not voiced this fear to my companions... Am I being silly? Or am I being selfish because I am afraid to be alone in these dire circumstances?
We were in the Bridge District when we came across an old friend, of sorts, Neera! I say "of sorts" because Neera is as unpredictable as her magic and I cannot fathom her intentions and moods any better than I can predict the weather. After the row that ended our brief "romance", if you can call it that, she surprised me by standing by my side as we faced the terrible dangers of Durlag's Tower and confronted Aec'Letec and Sarevok. However not long after our victory in Baldur's Gate, she just disappeared with no explanation, thankfully without having first knocked me out with a frying pan. We would have worried for her safety if she had not already complained about being bored with life in the city, so we assumed that she simply left for further adventures elsewhere.
As it happens Neera had decided that she was sick of living in fear of the Red Wizards of Thay, who continued to hunt down Wild Mages like animals for their nefarious experiments. She went in search of others of her kind and brought them together for mutual protection in a hidden refuge in the forests south of Athkatla. When we bumped into her in the Bridge District, she had just saved a young child from the grips of a squadron of Red Wizards. However, having given the child the means of teleporting to the refuge, she was marooned in the city herself.
It genuinely pleases me that Neera is taking responsibility and helping others, and not as selfish and self-centered as I thought. With Red Wizards once more on her tail, we offered to escort Neera back to the hidden refuge she had set up, and I was honoured that she trusted us with her secret. She was horrified to learn what had happened to Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira and I, as it is pretty much her own worst nightmare of what would happen if the Red Wizards caught her. Hence, after checking that the girl she saved was safe and that the hidden refuge was in good order, Neera offered to join our company once more to help save Imoen. I forget that for all the good times I had with Neera, she was always closer to Imoen... I guess the girls had more in common with each other.
Returning to Athkatla, two crises occurred in quick succession that distracted us from any further investigation into the Cowled Wizards. First we received shocking news that Anomen's sister had been murdered. Anomen had not mentioned that he was the son of one of the richest merchant families in the city, or rather once one of the richest. Now all the Delryn family owns is a large mansion in the government district that they could barely afford to upkeep, after the family business was ruined by a competitor called Saerk Farrahd. Saerk is strongly suspected of being involved in the murder, but there was no concrete evidence to prove it. Anomen demonstrated remarkable restraint to resist his own desire for vengeance, and his father's demand for it. Jaheira and Aerie argued for restraint whilst Yoshimo urged justice by the blade. I held my tongue because I didn't know what to say... all I know is that I doubt I'd have the same self-control that Anomen has demonstrated, if somebody had harmed those I cared about... if Irenicus were infront of me now. In any case, this is a personal matter and I respect Anomen's decision to leave it to the authorities rather than taking the law into his own hands without clear proof of Saerk's guilt.
After another day of drama we stopped off in the Sea's Bounty to rest for the night, only to run into somebody from Jaheira's past, an ex-baron Jaheira revealed as a slave trader several years ago, who harboured a fanatical desire for revenge all this time for the ruin it caused. Baron Ployer had used the last of resources to hire the services of powerful mage-assassins, who cursed Jaheira with a wasting spell that would result in a slow and painful death if not cured.
As Baron Ployer teleported away with his hired mages, we found ourselves in a race against time to save Jaheira. Tracking down the bastard was not easy, but we barely managed it before Jaheira was lost for good. After defeating Baron Ployer and the mages he hired, Aerie and Neera were able to discern the properties of the curse from the notes the mages carried, and concoct the counter-spell just in time as Jaheira drifted between life and death. It scared me to death that we so nearly lost Jaheira, so soon after I lost Imoen and Khalid, I don't think I could bear losing my last guardian and guide.
Even with the curse lifted, it has taken Jaheira days to recover from its effects, but she insists that she is fully fighting fit now. I wish I could say the same for myself. Whatever injuries Irenicus inflicted on my body, it seems to be more than simple physical injury. We have visited a number of healers and temples, but none could restore the strength I once possessed in my sword arm. I have tried to train with Heaven Reliant in my left hand, but despite my best efforts, it is clumsy and effective.
Whilst my body remains weak from my trials and tribulations in captivity, my mind seems to have been... expanded, somehow. I have gained an instinctive understanding of the Weave and the logic of spell-craft. It goes far beyond the limited powers I have possessed since the day of the revelation of my heritage. Those powers were innate, I knew I could heal minor injuries and cure poisons, or enhance my strength, speed and endurance for a short period, but I didn't know why or how, I just knew that I could. Now, ever since I escaped from that accursed dungeon, arcane scrolls that were once meaningless to me can be understood with a bare minimum of effort. I have learnt more spells in the last few days than most mage-adepts do so in years!
How is this happening? I do not know, though I suspect it has something to do with my heritage, and perhaps whatever Irenicus did to me... For now I can be grateful that I am not as useless in battle as I was during our jailbreak, as although Heaven Reliant remains impotent, I can at least lend sorcery to the effort. The source of this new-found power does concerns me, Gorion always warned me to steer clear of arcane magic, and my recent studies feel like a betrayal of his trust. But what option do I have? I need the strength to survive so that I can save Imoen, and visit justice upon the deviant that murdered Khalid!
Whilst Jaheira has been bedbound, we have tried to petition the government once more for the release of Imoen, and Anomen has sought assistance from his superiors in the Order, but nothing has borne fruit thus far. Frustratingly, Gaelen Bayle remains the only clear lead and option we have come across thus far, and so we have decided to start doing what we can to raise the gold he demanded, just encase more reasonable options do not present themselves.
It is for that reason that we find ourselves on the road to Trademeet, which as the name suggests, is an important trading town to the southeast of Athkatla. News from the town say that it is under attack by wild animals from the forest around it, and the High Merchant Lord of Trademeet will offer a handsome reward for any who can solve their problems.
Knowing my luck, that problem will probably be a dragon!
Day 19, 20 Mirtul, 1369 Well the troubles of Trademeet were not the doing of a dragon, thankfully, though in trying to resolve them, we still came perilously close to disaster.
Before we had even arrived, we had heard rumours that the town was under attack by wild beasts, likely controlled by the druids that lived in a grove nearby. Jaheira correctly guessed that there must have been a change of leadership at the grove, given that the druids had lived in relative peace with Trademeet for generations. It did not take us long to discover the presence of Shadow Druids that confirmed her suspicions.
As if the menace of the Shadow Druids were not bad enough, Trademeet was also held to ransom by a group of Dao genies from Calimshaan, who insisted that the citizens hand over a Rakshasa they were hunting, and believed to be disguised in human form in the area. How they expected anyone to be able to distinguish a Rakshasa in disguise when they themselves could not, I do not know, but we decided to deal with one problem at a time, and travel to the druid grove to deal with the animal attacks first. As it happens, that's where we found the Rakshasa too.
The journey to the druid grove was not easy, the Shadow Druids had allowed foul creatures like trolls to infest the forest, and we were forced to defend ourselves from fanatical druids on a number of occasions too, which was unfortunate as Jaheira had hoped to reason with her kin without bloodshed. Whilst seeking shelter for the night, we came upon a small cottage in the deep forest, inhabited by an elderly women and her two sisters.
We should have known something was off about the situation, the unlikeliness that three apparently defenceless old women could survive in a forest full of vicious trolls and aggressive druids... Complacency very nearly got us all killed, as the three sisters attacked us in the middle of the night, and revealed themselves as a trio of Rakshasa, led by Ithafeer, the very fiend the Dao Djinni were hunting. Thankfully Aerie, being an elf, did not sleep like the rest of us, and emerged from her trance to raise the alarm.
Rising quickly to the danger, we fought back with spell, blade and hammer, but nothing seemed to harm the creatures, and the cottage soon filled with noxious gas that threatened to choke the life from our lungs. Just as I was about to pass out, I saw a flash of light, a feeling of weightlessness and then a crunching pain as I landed. In her panic and desperation, Neera had resorted to using Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, and teleported us out of the cottage just in time. She didn't control it well, so we ended up falling from quite a height, but she explained that it was safer than possibly materializing us buried in the ground. Seeing as the alternative was certain death, I could not begrudge her for broken bones and impact injuries, which though painful, were not beyond the healing magic within our company.
We hid for a full day and night encase the Rakshasa were hunting us, as well as recovering from our injuries, before pressing onward to the druid grove. When we arrived, we discovered that the druid leadership had been usurped by Faldorn, a Shadow Druid who sought to wage war against civilisation itself, like those we encountered in the Cloakwood. Heavily outnumbered in the heart of the druid grove, a direct battle would have been a bloodbath, and quite likely seal our own demise. However, Jaheira challenged Faldorn directly in the ancient custom of the druids, a single combat to the death with no equipment allowed.
I looked on helplessly as Jaheira stepped into the ring alone- the druids only accepted challengers from among their own. And in any case, Jaheira is far more competent with the ceremonial quarterstaff each combatant was given... not that she needed it! Because as soon as the duel began, Jaheira transformed into a bear! I had no idea that she could do that! I suppose it's because for as long as I have known her, she has fought clad in heavy armour, which must make shape-shifting inconvenient to say the least. Faldorn summoned a swarm of biting insects in response, a spell I have witnessed Jaheira use to devastating effect against our enemies. However, on this occasion, Jaheira's ferocity, in bear form, proved too much for Faldorn, and she emerged victorious. Jaheira's victory gave her the power to appoint a moderate druid as temporary arch-druid for the grove, and declared an end to the druid raids against Trademeet.
We returned to Trademeet with mixed news. The animal attacks were ended, but the Dao genies' blockade continued, and with their hiding location discovered, the Rakshasa had no doubt moved on. Starved of food and other essential supplies for weeks, Trademeet was on the edge of disaster. We pleaded with the Dao leader, Khan Zahraa, for understanding that the Rakshasa were not in Trademeet, and no doubt escaped far from the area, but he could not be moved, and demanded that we bring the creatures' heads in compensation for our "failure".
We were left with no choice. Though it is dangerous to offend genies of any variety, we could not stand by and watch Trademeet starve and people die as a result of the Dao's unreasonable demands. So, in the middle of the night, with the aid of High Lord Logan Coprith and his soldiers, we led a surprise attack on the Dao camp. The Djinni are powerful beings, but their arrogance blinded them to the danger that "mere mortals" could pose, and we cut a path to Khan Zahraa himself and struck him down. With their leader fallen, the remaining Dao Djinni teleported away.
For now Trademeet is safe, and Lord Coprith provided a fair reward for our efforts with a decent sum of gold as well as a powerful Belt of Inertial Barrier and Cloak of Displacement. In addition statues bearing our resemblance were erected in the town square to honour the "Heroes of Trademeet". I remain uneasy however... the Dao Djinni may return with retribution in mind, and the powerful Rakshasa remain on the loose. There was nothing we could do about either of those problems, so we returned to Athkatla, coin purses significantly swelled, though nowhere near enough to pay Gaelen Bayle's outrageous price, even if we were desperate enough to place our trust in such an individual.
Back in the city, we continued to explore every avenue we could think of to find Spellhold, or allies that might have the influence necessary to free Imoen from the Cowled Wizards. The Temple of Helm admitted that they had little influence on the wizards, though High Watcher Oisig promised to do what he could if we would assist the church's investigation into a deviant cult calling itself the Unseeing Eye. Before we could make any progress however, a more urgent crisis arose to take our priority, a young woman named Nalia found us in the Copper Coronet, having heard of what we had done for Trademeet, she desperately sought our assistance to save her home from a troll attack. I must admit that the fact that her "home" was the mighty De'Arnise Keep made her pleas all the more convincing. If we could secure the favour of an influential Amnian noble like Lord De'Arnise, perhaps he could help us free Imoen!
Just before we set off once more, Anomen was summoned to the Order headquarters. Word of his deeds in Trademeet had reached them, and they deemed him ready for the test of knighthood. Though Anomen's arrogance and attitude grates on my nerves on occasion, I was much pleased that he passed the test and officially became a Knight of the Order of the Radiant Heart. I know how much it means to him.
As Nalia joined us, Neera left, temporarily, she assured us. At least she told us before she left this time! And I totally understand, she was worried about the safety of the hidden refuge, and wanted to check in from time to time. She promised to find us at the Copper Coronet when we return.
My "default" quest-path in early game BG2 is Circus => Slavers => De'Arnise Keep, which are basically the first three quests you come across as a Good party, and offers three good companions and a relatively gentle difficulty curve.
For a change, I decided to pretend that Nalia wasn't there and go to Trademeet after the slavers, mostly because I intended to replace Jaheira soon, but wanted to do Trademeet with her in the party for roleplay reasons. Metagaming-wise, I was reluctant to lose Jaheira before Jin recovered his Kensai levels, which would leave the party without a capable tank.
I badly underestimated the difficulty I'd face in Trademeet (or rather the Druid Grove). This early in the game, I literally had no weapons capable of harming Rakshasa, save for Belm, which I forgot to pick up before the fight. With Anomen wearing only Platemail at this point, and nothing to compensate for his low Dexterity, even normal trolls were a serious pain to bring down, and any notions I had of doing all of the Druid Grove without resting went out of the window quickly after the first troll pack.
Incredibly though, despite the close shave with the Rakshasa, no reloads... thus far.
I just realised that there were two things I forgot to mention before the next update for the De'Arnise Keep. Firstly the state of the party at the end of Trademeet:
And when I said "no reloads... thus far". That was a semi-truth. There were no reloads up to the conclusion of the Trademeet quests, but I suffered my first party-wipe against the Den of the Seven Vales party. Although Trademeet gave me way more gold than I expected, I ended up spending most of it on Belt of Inertia Barrier and Cloak of Displacement (cosmetic mod means you don't see it in the screencaps), which left me still lacking some basic equipment like Full-Plate for Anomen and Jaheira, a much-needed strength belt, and the Robe of Vecna. Hence I decided to take on that party for some much-needed "basic" gear.
However, due to my reluctance to use short-duration prebuffs, and the confined space of the tavern, I have always found that battle to be quite tricky, and so it proved...
Reload No.1: Den of the Seven Vales
... I lost half the party to Chaos, and couldn't stop the dwarf chopping Jin to pieces. Anomen also got chunked in two hits after that screencap was taken. On my second attempt Jaheira managed to get Insect Plague off earlier and shut down enemy spellcasting, which made things much easier.
Our quest to save the De'Arnise Keep received an unexpected boon night before we arrived. I had a nightmare of sorts, not unlike those I had when I first discovered the truth about my heritage, except this time I saw Irenicus hurting Imoen, conducting experiments on her as he had done upon me. A rage rose up within me, burning hatred and ... murderous desire, like nothing I have ever experienced before. In my dream I threw myself at Irenicus, Heaven Reliant in hand, the magical weakness that had crippled my body in recent weeks gone, replaced with renewed strength and vigor. Irenicus looked surprised, but when I struck him through the heart with my blade, he smiled.
I awoke with a cold sweat, and felt myself drawn to Heaven Reliant. When I drew the blade from its scabbard, it glowed with a bright blue light that was not there before, and I felt my body infused with strength, like in my dream. Flames erupted around me, and I feared that I would burn our camp down, but the fire was of a magical nature, protecting me, but harmless to my surroundings. Of course my companions were initially alarmed, but I knew that somehow, Heaven Reliant had restored my vitality and health. What is the source of this power? Is it within the blade or within my divine essence? I do not know. For now, it seems to be a boon. Will there be a cost for this power? Time will tell.
Unfortunately, for all our haste to reach the De'Arnise Keep, we had come too late. The trolls had already broken into the fortress, and the bodies of scores of men-at-arms were cruelly hung at the gates, impaled upon wooden spikes. Through distraught tears, Nalia pointed us towards a secondary camp hidden in the woods nearby, where the men were told to regroup should the defenses be overrun. There were a scant few survivors gathered there, and Lord De'Arnise was not among them.
In the desperate hope of finding survivors within, we devised a plan of attack to retake the keep. Using Nalia's intimate knowledge of her home, we sneaked into the fortress through a secret tunnel she had often used to sneak out for adventures and help "others of your kind". Once within we attacked the trolls by surprise and moved quickly to take the guard tower, opening the gates to allow the remnants of the De'Arnise guards and hastily assembled militia to storm the inner keep.
As battle raged for control of the keep, our company headed straight for the dungeons, where a terrified servant we rescued said that Lord De'Arnise had been taken. Along the way Nalia took us to her family chapel, which also doubled as a secret crypt where the family's greatest treasures were hidden, including an ancient relic called the Flail of Ages, which would prove a powerful weapon against the trolls, and wielded to great effect by Anomen.
Past throngs of trolls and their Yuan-ti allies, we found the leader of the attack force, a monstrous troll calling itself Torgal, at his feet was the lifeless body of Lord De'Arnise. There was to be no parley with such a creature, no offer of surrender and no mercy. We attacked with sword, flail and spell. I surprised myself at how far my sword mastery has progressed since I started applying theory into practice beyond the safety of Candlekeep. Augmenting my physical training with arcane protection and enhancement, I have become tenfold the warrior I was when I faced Sarevok. Whilst our companions dealt with Torgal's entourage, Anomen and I hacked and smashed the beast to its knees. Nalia finished it off, avenging her father with an Acid Face into the monster's face.
The De'Arnise Keep had been retaken, but we had come too late to save the majority of its inhabitants, including Nalia's father. Though she had promised a handsome reward for our services, we readied to leave without it, as it would be insensitive to bring up the subject given the circumstances. Instead however, Nalia made an offer none of us expected.
She explained that her father had been in conflict with a rival noble, Lord Roenall, who coveted their land, and Nalia had barely escaped having to marry his son, a most nasty individual if her accounts are to be believed. With her father dead and no male heirs to inherit his land, the De'Arnise Keep and all its land and property would pass onto the Roenalls due to her previous betrothal to Isaea Roenall. Thanks to a quirk of Amnian law however, Nalia could appoint a fighting man, me in this case, as a de-facto lord of the keep and prevent the Roenall takeover.
My first thought was that it would be absurd for an outsider to be accepted as an Amnian noble, and suggested Anomen instead, but apparently his vows to the Order prevents his inheritance of noble titles. Yoshimo, aside from also being an outsider, has an unsavory reputation within Athkatla that would cause more problems than a complete unknown like me. So, given that the rest of our company are women, the "honour" landed on me by default.
Becoming an Amnian lord may seem fortuitous at first, but it makes little difference in practice. I have little knowledge of Amnian politics, and promised to leave the governance of the land to Nalia and her advisors. My lack of noble heritage, and indeed any Amnian heritage, meant that my de-facto title offers little influence to help me rescue Imoen from the Cowled Wizards, and the devastation of the troll attack depleted whatever financial resources the De'Arnise family possessed, and I could hardly demand gold from Nalia when her people faced starvation in the months to come.
Our efforts to help Nalia was not entirely in vain however, in addition to making a potentially powerful friend, Nalia allowed Anomen to keep the Flail of Ages, as payment for our services.
Obviously I used the dream thing to explain the odd game mechanic that suddenly Jin's Kensai skills all re-activated after he reached lv10 Mage. And what a difference it makes! My party has gone from being completely reliant on Jaheira and her Ironskins, making every troll pack quite bothersome, to slicing and dicing through them with ease. Starting to appreciate why Kensai=>Mage is so powergamey. lol
I actually ctrl+y'd all the golems in the secret crypt. I could have killed them at this stage (and got the xp that would yield) with Jin's powers back, but I always felt it makes more sense if Nalia could disable golems designed to protect her family.
And yes... although Jin got his Kensai powers back, I still couldn't say goodbye to Jaheira just yet. It's coming though
Upon our return to Athkatla, I was pleased to find Neera waiting for us at the Copper Coronet, just as she promised. Unfortunately however, as one friend returned, one of my earliest companions, nay my only remaining guardian figure, left...
It was no secret that Jaheira had visited the Harper base in Athkatla on a number of occasions, seeking information and assistance regarding Imoen and Irenicus. What I did not know was that a schism had emerged within the group, and that they had been debating about how to "deal with" me and Aluando's prophecy. Some within the Harpers believe that I pose a grave threat to Faerun and must be eliminated to thwart the realisation of the prophecy. Others, Jaheira among them of course, believe that it would be wrong to persecute somebody guilty of no crime other than their heritage, and pointed to my good intentions and noble actions in and around Baldur's Gate, and more recently, Trademeet.
Unfortunately, it appears that the argument of pre-emptive strike won out in the end, and the Harpers, or at least the Athkatla branch of them, has become my enemy. Before she left, Jaheira left a note explaining that Harper magic allowed them to detect each other's presence, so her company would increase the risk that I'd be caught. She also admittedly that she could not bear harming her colleagues, most of whom are good people following bad orders, and hoped that I'd avoid using lethal force if I had to defend myself against them. Working from within, she hoped to misdirect the Harpers off my trail and give me the opportunity to continue my quest unmolested by yet more enemies.
Bereft of our leader and guide, we sought the favour of the Temple of Helm and ventured into the sewers to assist Sir Keldorn Firecam, a respected paladin of the Order of the Radiant Heart, and Anomen's superior in the Order. He had made several expeditions into the sewers already, but could not find the secret base from which the Cult of the Unseeing Eye spreads its poisonous ideology. Two days of crawling through the filthy tunnels yielded little clues regarding the cult, though we did happen upon the lair of a vicious gang that used the sewers as a hideout from the law. We offered them the opportunity to surrender, but were forced to slay them in self-defense in a surprisingly tough battle. Having learnt of the crimes that these hardened brigands are responsible for, I have no regrets for their demise.
Deeper in the tunnels we were ambushed by a group of Kobold, led by a Rakshasa, who they appeared to worship as a god. Thankfully this particular Rakshasa was nowhere near as powerful as Ithafeer and her kin, and we slew the creature with relative ease, scattering his cowardly minions.
Exhausted, we returned to the Copper Coronet for much needed rest. With Harpers on our tail, we really shouldn't stay at any one tavern for any extended length of time, but I feel somewhat safer here due to our relationship with Hendak, who I trust not to give me up to the first person to offer a bag of gold. Besides, with our clothes stinking of the sewers these days, I doubt many other taverns would let us in the front door!
I best get some shut-eye, need to get up nice and early for yet more sewer crawling!
Yes I have finally picked up Keldorn, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that he started with 800k xp! Because of how long I waited until picking him up, I was worried that Keldorn would fall significantly behind the rest of the party in terms of experience. As it happens 800k puts him well ahead of everyone else in the party, which is fitting because he is supposed to be a hardened veteran, and ought to be much more experienced than the likes of Anomen and Aerie. It's almost like I planned it!
The departure of Jaheira was something that I planned. The loss of all his guardian figures (combined with his recent recovery of Kensai skills) allows him to finally step out from under their protective wing and assume a leadership position in the party.
Just before Jaheira left she demonstrated her prowess one last time in the "Battle of the Temple Sewer". Due to my "no-prebuffing" rules, this encounter has always caused me problems in the past, and is partly why I have been scared to attempt to get Keldorn earlier. On this occasion however, Insect Plague wrecked enemy spellcasters and made the result more or less a formality.
After picking up Keldorn, I initially planned to do Neera's Hidden Refuge quests. My metagame reasoning being "well now I got an inquisitor, lets' take on some mages!". Unfortunately there ended up being way more mages in that Red Wizard compound than I expected, as well as a small army of elite mercenaries! Taking the compound by force was clearly beyond the capability of my company at this point, and although I know that there is a less direct approach to the quest, I personally felt that it was too "unrealistic", so I shall simply return to that quest line when the party is much better equipped to deal with it. The two reloads it took to reach that conclusion does however get added to the tally...
Reload 2: Red Wizard Compound
I underestimated the strength of resistance in the front-room of the compound, and things went horribly wrong shortly after I lost half the party (including Jin) to Chaos.
Reload 3:Red Wizard Compound
I was stunned by the sheer number of guards and Red Wizards in the bar area, and thought that it was pretty unrealistic that they didn't notice the carnage in the front-room, so I attacked without summoning or using short term prebuffs. Despite doing well to take out the trio of mages in the centre of the room, more guards and mages poured in from adjoining rooms, and things went south very quickly. I had especially underestimated the mercenaries, who hit like a tonne of bricks. One of them smacked Yoshi for 40+ dmg and another hit Neera for 57(!?) chunking her instantly from full health, which would have been grounds for a reload even before Jin went down shortly afterwards... ... I guess Beamdog were worried that veterans might find the new content too easy.
@Heindrich, my, you've been quite prolific in your writing the past couple of weeks. I'm really enjoying reading your run. I even started munching peanuts while reading these last few entries, as though watching a movie. Very entertaining - thank you.
I like your style of putting Jin's journal entries in italics, with the OOC explanations in regular print. As always, I enjoy the way you wrap your story around the game events and mechanics.
I've never done any of Beamdog's additions yet, so it was interesting to see you have the same reaction that a lot of the early players had, that the new battles are quite hard, perhaps even too much so for the level at which they logically should occur. I hope it doesn't force you to alter your plans to use Neera throughout the game. Do you have to win that battle to get her back into the party?
Also, I was wondering if that Nahal's Reckless Dweomer teleportation actually happened in your defeat against Ithafeer, or was that just creative storytelling?
I have always interpreted what happens in the game fairly loosely rather than worry about everything on a literal basis. So...
1) Neera leaving the party before the De'Arnise Keep was just part of my standard rotation policy, to make way for Nalia, I did it in my first playthrough as well, if you remember. I think I rotated Anomen on that occasion and said that he was recovering from injuries or something.
2) Neera's quest line comes in several stages. The first stage is easy and is the only thing you need to do to recruit her. The second stage is where I hit the brick wall, but Neera does not complain if you delay it until much later.
3) The wild surge teleport was just my creative explanation for how my party managed to escape from that dire situation. (Where in fact it's because the AI allows your entire group to withdraw as a whole when one of them reaches the door, and in this case, the Rakshasa do not even pursue you outside.) A Wild Mage is rather convenient for plot purposes.
It has been but two days since I last wrote, but you would not believe how far away I have traveled and the sights I have seen!
It all started in the Temple Sewers. In our search for the secret headquarters of the deviant cult calling itself the Unseeing Eye, Yoshimo spotted a hidden tunnel that led to what turned out to be a wizard's lair. The wizard in question was a rogue mage by the name of Mekrath, who made his home in the sewers to avoid the attentions of the Cowled Wizards. Although Mekrath had an unsavory reputation, we were about to excuse our intrusion when we noticed his servant in the corner of the room. He had a totally blank expression on his face, and moved around with a certain awkwardness, almost golem-like.
When we confronted Mekrath about this, he claimed that the servant was a thief he had caught and decided to punish by being turned into a thrall. Clearly this was an abhorrent excess, even if the individual was a thief, but when we demanded Mekrath to free the man, the arrogant mage attacked without hesitation. Perhaps he had intended to attack us anyway, given that we had discovered his hidden lair. In any case, he badly underestimated our company, and Keldorn in particular, whose ability to Dispel Magic stripped him of his arcane protections, allowing Anomen and I and strike him down with ease.
The demise of Mekrath broke his enchantment upon his victim, who upon regaining his senses, introduced himself as Haer'Dalis, an actor from a travelling troupe based in the Five Flagons Inn. What he did not tell us was that he and his troupe had traveled from far farther than Calimshaan, or indeed Faerun! When we escorted Haer'Dalis, still a little confused from his ordeal, to the Five Flagons, his grateful companions revealed that they were planar travelers hailing from a world called Vigil! With Haer'Dalis returned to them, they could finally move on from their overlong stay upon the "Prime Material Plane"- their name for our world.
Opening the planar portal they required to travel between the planes ripped a tear into the fabric of reality, and with that came the risk of dangerous extra-planar creatures escaping into our world until the portal was stabilised. Naturally, we agreed to help them defend the portal whilst their leader, Raelis Shai, worked to do so. The first few creatures to emerge were simple mephits and imps, which posed no serious danger to us, however, that all changed when a squadron of heavily armed warriors suddenly appeared.
Haer'Dalis and his companions had one more secret they had not shared with us. They were wanted fugitives, escaping the law in Vigil, where they had apparently offended a powerful noble with a provocative play. As a result they were being hunted across the planes by planes-travelling bounty hunters(!), who had somehow redirected their portal from their intended destination to a Planar Prison! Unfortunately, given that we in the present company of Haer'Dalis and his companions, we were also drawn into the portal, which closed behind us as we landed in a strange new world.
I say "world", but it was really just a bizarre prison within a small pocket plane, and home to a Cambion that was its master and warden. Because our arrival was not anticipated, we were not teleported directly into holding cells along with Haer'Dalis and his friends, but we did land right next to the bounty hunters that tracked them down. After a moment of hesitation on both sides, a frantic battle broke out, in which thanks to the speed of Neera's spellcasting, we were able to seize the upper hand and vanquish our attackers.
What followed was a desperate attempt to escape the Planar Prison as its guards reacted to our intrusion. Unfortunately, many of those "guards" were in fact fellow victims trapped in the prison, and compelled to do its master's bidding by means of a control collar. We had no choice but to kill scores of thralls in self-defense, until we found the Master of Thralls, a Tanar'ri demon and lieutenant of the Warden. A mighty Tanar'ri demon was once a terror to behold, and though this particular fiend was not as powerful as Aec'Letec, I surprised myself and my companions with the ease with which I cut him down with Heaven Reliant, whilst his attacks were easily avoided or repelled with my arcane protections and natural agility. Such power is welcome given my circumstances, but it worries me also, especially given what happened next...
With the Master of Thralls slain, his control collars ceased to function. The prison suddenly erupted into chaos as recently freed thralls fought desperately to escape the only way possible- by slaying the Warden. The battle was ferocious and bloody in the extreme, and by the time we arrived, the majority of the Warden's guards and their former captives were already dead. The Warden himself had apparently been hexed by an escaped mage, and what would surely have been a terrible foe was easily dispatched by the blade. At the moment of our victory however, disaster struck.
A stray spell, cast by prisoners or guards, I do not know, caught me just as I slew the Warden. Suddenly the world spun around me, and I felt weightless, as if teleporting. When I recovered my senses, I was back in the Temple of Bhaal in the Undercity beneath Baldur's Gate. Before me stood Sarevo, Irenicus, and an entourage of henchmen! At their feet was the mutilated bodies of Khalid, Gorion and Imoen. When they saw me, Sarevok laughed, and Irenicus merely looked upon me with the same cold, dead, eyes. Grief and anger overcame me, I waited for no explanation, no perverse reasoning, and rushed my enemies with lethal intent. I decapitated the first henchmen I reached in one swift attack, and moved onto Sarevok, who blocked and parried as best as he could, but he could not match my new-found speed and power, and I struck him down in mere heartbeats. Irenicus put up more determined resistance, but I quickly overpowered him too, and raised Heaven Reliant to deliver a lethal strike.
Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my head, I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again, I was standing over Anomen, the tip of Heaven Reliant at his throat. At his side Keldorn lay motionless, lying in a pool of blood, his blood. A poor gnome whose name I did know, a clearly a prisoner here given his garb, lay headless nearby. Aerie, Neera and Yoshimo looked on aghast, Yoshimo with his bow notched and drawn upon me. I had been hit by confusion-inducing magic, not unlike those Neera loved to use against our enemies, and in my confusion I had gone on a rampage, lashing out at all those around me, nearly killing both Anomen and Keldorn as they threw themselves between me and the others.
After the shock of the incident passed, and both Anomen and Keldorn healed with no lasting damage, they expressed understanding and sympathy, and said that I was not to blame for their injuries, or the death of the stranger we did not even know. I do wonder if Anomen truly meant it, or whether he was merely obeying Keldorn, a superior in the Order. Truth be told, I am scared, I came so near to killing my companions... if Anomen had fallen, there is no doubt the others would not have survived my furious assault. I have seen the effects of Chaos on numerous occasions upon our enemies, and even experienced it myself before, but never have I seen a victim erupt into such wanton rage and violence. It is as if without my consciousness controlling my body, the monster within, the essence of murder, was free to reign havoc unchecked. I dread to think of the consequences if I ever lose control again and hurt somebody I love and care about.
With the Warden slain and his remaining guards overcome by the surviving prisoners, we found Haer'Dalis and Raelis Shai, who were thankfully unharmed. The warden's magic had been dissipated, allowing Raelis Shai to open a portal back to the Prime plane and escape the harrowing planar prison.
After our latest adventure, it feels rather odd to be back in a place as mundane and ordinary as a tavern in Faerun. Though given my experiences of planar travel thus far, I would not mind being forever grounded on "Prime Material Plane", one world is big enough for me!
I decided to ignore any connection between Quayle and Raelis, it just seemed unnecessary plot-wise, as I stumble into the Planar Prison quite naturally whilst picking up Keldorn and dealing with the Unseeing Eye (which I always dread, another reason why I delayed getting Keldorn).
The prison was significantly easier than in my previous experiences, mostly because I had learnt to use Robe of Vecna (recently purchased after the De'Arnise Keep) to launch a very rapid Greater Mallison + Web combo (by Neera and Aerie) to deal with the bounty hunters. The near-disaster I described at the end was pretty accurate. I got complacent because the Warden was confused when I arrived, presumably due to a bad saving throw against a prisoner's spell, so he was easily dealt with before he could deal serious pain with nastiness like Horrid Wilting (which would one-shot Aerie and Neera). However I forgot about his entourage, and somehow Keldorn got stunned, and a hasted Jin got "Chaos'd". This was a very bad combination as Keldorn was unable to dispel the confusion, and became a sitting duck for Jin, who had also recently picked up Boots of Speed so he moved like a bullet and shredded whatever he attacked in moments.
I was seriously worried that Jin would chunk Keldorn, as attempts to stop him with Hold Person, Dispel, Charm (Jin had the Ring of Human Influence too!), Command etc... failed. Thankfully Jin only killed Keldorn and badly mauled Anomen before wandering off and leaving the party alone. Unfortunately poor Tagget was not so lucky and was the first to get chunked in Jin's frenzy. I was relieved to not lose any reputation for Tagget's death, though I might have missed out on some experience points. (Don't know about this since I did get xp from Raelish Shai).
I had always known that the Boots of Speed was in the Planar Prison, but I had forgotten all the other treasures there, including Kundane, Staff of Air, Adjatha the Drinker and Gauntlets of Weapon Skill. So that turned out to be a much more rewarding prison break than I expected.
@Heindrich, that was a very creative way to describe what it would feel like to be under a Chaos spell. You suffer a delusion that makes you think the first person you see is your worst, most powerful enemy, living or dead. Interesting.
With everything that has happened recently, it feels surreal, wrong even, to write about anything other than my quest to save Imoen and deliver justice upon Irenicus. I feel guilty as if I have allowed myself to be distracted from my mission... but I cannot deny a whole part of my life, I cannot pretend that it's not happening. Not writing about it is simply lying to myself. So here goes... I am falling in love again!
No I am not talking about Neera, though it has certainly been nice to have her back, and also discover a more responsible and caring side to her personality. But no, I am talking about Aerie...
I was drawn to Aerie the moment the cruel illusion Kalah cast upon her was broken. Her flowing golden hair, gentle features and big blue eyes... captivated me. Given my lessons with Neera, where I created an idealised version of her in my mind, without opening my eyes to really see the girl in front of me, I was careful to avoid the same mistakes with Aerie, and indeed resisted getting close to her at first.
But I could not help it. I could not help but lend an ear and a shoulder when she became upset, homesick or scared, and in time she grew to trust me with more of her sorrowful past and the legacy of pain it has left her. My heart aches for the suffering and injustice she has endured, and reminds me time and again of the evil that plagues our world. Sometimes I want nothing more than to hold Aerie in my arms and shelter her from all the unpleasantness and evil in the world, but it seems my destiny demands that I must venture from one danger to the next, no matter how much I try to avoid the taint of my divine heritage.
I occasionally wonder if I am being selfish in encouraging Aerie to find strength within herself to overcome her doubts and the burdens of her past. Am I doing the right thing to help her, or am I simply scared to lose her? Indeed before Jaheira left, she had voiced considerable doubt regarding Aerie's suitability for a life of adventure and danger, and we did decline Nalia's offer to join us because of her naivety and inexperience... No, aside from her own insistence to continue upon our shared path, Aerie does possess great courage and inner strength, the evidence of which I see more and more the longer I have known her. I believe that she has what it takes to cast aside the shadow of her lost wings and make her mark upon the world, hopefully with me by her side.
I am convinced that I am not merely entranced by beauty and fallen in love with an illusion of my creation. I can see the light of compassion and hope within her, beneath her seemingly fragile exterior, there is a burning passion to help those who cannot help themselves, to combat injustice and to right wrongs. For someone to possess such innocence and goodness, despite all the injustice and suffering they have been subjected to, is precious beyond description. She is a beacon of light in a world of so much darkness...
Aerie knows how I feel about her, I couldn't bottle it up any longer after the trials we overcame at the De'Arnise Keep and confessed on the road back to Athkatla. She said that she understood little of the love I described, and although she did care about me, she needed more time to make sense of her feelings. I guess it is not quite the answer I was hoping for, but she has not left my company, and we grow closer day by day. For somebody as special as Aerie, I will wait for as long as she needs.
OOC Sometime around the De'Arnise Keep and the Planar Prison, I had got through the content for the Aerie romance. However, I decided against regular updates on Jin's love life, which seems out of place given the life-and-death events and momentous achievements that take place at the same time. That said, I know from personal experience how much of your head can get taken up by a romantic infatuation, even with other important stuff going on, so it'd be odd if Jin completely ignored that aspect of his life, hence the above.
Oh yeah, I always felt that the pace of the BG2 romances were way too fast. So my canon-Jin is gonna have to work a lot harder to win Aerie over compared to game-Jin.
Having recuperated from our ordeal in the Planar Prison, we resumed our investigation into the Cult of Unseeing Eye. Given our failure to discover the hidden base we knew to be somewhere in beneath the sewers, we decided to find the cult the only way anyone seems to have been able to- by joining it. Pretending to be swayed by the fiery sermon of Gaal, we mingled with a crowd of converts and followed him into the sewers. As expected, he led us to a hidden door that we had missed, perhaps protected by magic, which revealed an ancient tunnel complex that extended far beneath the city.
The size and sophistication of the cult went far beyond what we had expected. Instead of a band of desperate fanatics, we found a well-organised secret society, complete with hundreds of soldiers, administrators and cultists. What made the spectacle all the more disturbing was the fact that everyone in the cult was blind, with their eyes cut out as part of the initiation ceremony, and yet they could still see, as Gaal promised.
As the newest recruits were led to an altar besides a giant pit for the initiation ceremony, I feared that we'd have to break cover and try to fight our way out from the heart of cultist complex, to avoid having our eyes cut out. However, a potentially desperate breakout was avoided when Gaal recognised Keldorn and Anomen, and demanded an explanation for the presence of two distinguished knights of the Order of the Radiant Heart among his converts. Just when it seemed battle would be unavoidable, Gaal offered an alternative. We were to prove our faith by retrieving an artifact from a lost temple in service to their god, in return for the opportunity to be honoured with an audience with "the living god".
Of course we jumped at the opportunity to avoid a bloodbath and getting to the truth of the cult, though it did trouble us that we being sent on an errand so dangerous that not even their "god" could do it alone. As it happened, there was a reason for that. The artifact the cult sought was an ancient weapon called a Rift Device, so devastatingly powerful that it was hidden by the gods of ages past in a secret temple of Amaunator far underground and protected by deadly traps and ageless wards that were impenetrable to creatures of darkness, including Beholders. The Unseeing Eye, we would come to learn, was in fact a particularly ancient and powerful member of the most vile and evil of races.
The creature had likely formed the cult specifically to use its members to retrieve the artifact, for what nefarious purpose, we shall never know. It likely knew of our deceit and saw past our flimsy disguise as converts, but hoped to use our capabilities to obtain the Rift Device where his other followers had failed. What the monster did not know was that an avatar of the long-dead Sun God remained within his forgotten temple, and once we were able to summon him, he warned us of the Unseeing Eye's nature and intention. In exchange for our promise to return the Rift Device, its powers much dimished by the passage of a millennium, the avatar permitted us to borrow the weapon for one final purpose, to destroy the Unseeing Eye.
Reaching the monster to deploy the device was no easy task. Within his inner sanctum we faced his most fanatical human clerics, as well as lessers of his kin, each whom were deadly monsters in their own right. Both Aerie and Neera required urgent healing after being hit by the lethal barrage of Harm spells the Beholders unleashed.
Somehow, with our escape cut off, we persevered and pressed onwards, and found the Unseeing Eye in the heart of his lair, an enormous Beholder, far larger and more vile than any we had faced before. It seemed amused at our presence, though it is difficult to gauge the expression of a floating eyeball monster. We did not wait for a villain's exposition in the face of such a powerful and terrible foe. I unleashed the power of the Rift Device immediately, a column of purifying flame erupted from the rod and engulfed the Beholder, incinerating it in a hideous death scream.
With their "god" vanquished and their "vision" removed, chaos and panic erupted among the cultists above, allowing us to easily sneak out of the lair in the confusion, and quickly return with a coalition of soldiers from the Temple of Helm and the Order. Some of the cultists resisted arrest at the cost of their lives, some managed to flee into the darkness, but the majority were apprehended to be held accountable for any crimes they may have committed in servitude to the Unseeing Eye.
High Watcher Oisig thanked us for our efforts in eliminating the deviant cult, and although he was unable to secure Imoen's release from his contacts among the Cowled Wizards, he was able to get us a meeting with a high-up among them, a man by the name of Tolgerias, I believe. It is start I suppose, and I dearly hope it will lead us to Imoen soon.
The only item I disallow from my playthroughs is the Shield of Balduran, because it renders an entire class of very dangerous enemies entirely trivial. As a result, Beholders have always inspired dread in me, and my latest foray against them reminded me exactly why.
I had hoped that with the Boots of Speed and Jin's impressive damage output, he could rush in and slice n' dice em so fast that I could "out-dps" them. That led to...
Reload No. 4: Gauth in the Rift Area
I hate Gauth even more than full Beholders. Not only do they normally come in dangerous packs, whereas Beholders usually come in ones and twos, they use Cause Serious Harm like a machine gun! Ironically the variety of nastiness full Beholders unleash (such as Remove Magic, Flesh to Stone etc) reduces their sheer dps output compared to Gauth. (At least this is my observation). At this point in the game, a single Gauth can kill Aerie or Neera in a split second with 2 unerringly accurate blasts, and Jin was crippled before he even reached the trio to swing a sword, and died shortly afterwards. The following screencap is actually from the subsequent successful effort, when I decided to go back to the tried and trusted Greater Mallison+Web combo. Even then Gauth have surprisingly good saves and dealt plenty of damage as I traded fire with ranged weapons, using Anomen as a spell-shield, thanks to his good health pool, Armour of Faith and Belt of Inertia Barrier, which helped to mitigate damage quite significantly.
In terms of loot, the most significant item obtain via this questline was the Gauntlets of Dexterity, which makes Anomen quite an effective tank. I also used the gold earnt to buy Aerie the Bracers of Defense AC 3, which helps to keep her alive when her Stoneskins run out.
It has been a tenday since I last wrote. Much has happened, as always, but my objective remains elusive and Imoen remains a captive of the Cowled Wizards. I am running out of patience rapidly... But let me start from the beginning.
Our first meeting with Tolgerias was tense, but cordial. Though I was sorely tempted to put a sword to his throat and demand the release of Imoen, Keldorn and Aerie urged restraint and we gave diplomacy a chance. Tolgerias revealed much of what we already knew. He confirmed that Imoen was apprehended by the Cowled Wizards following the "disturbance" in Waukeen's Promenade, and subsequently transferred to their "Asylum for the Magically Deviant", more commonly known as Spellhold, a name we have heard whispered here and there in our investigations to date.
Tolgerias insisted that he did not have direct access to Imoen, or even Spellhold, as the Cowled Wizards divided their spheres of responsibility along distinct geographic and professional boundaries, so the Athkatla branch of the organisation has limited influence with those that run the secret prison known as Spellhold. However, he promised to "look into the matter" and wield his influence in our favour if we were to help him apprehend a wanted fugitive responsible for the murder of two Cowled Wizards. The man's name was Valygar.
To cut a long story short, our hunt for Valygar took us deep into the Umar Hills. Our latest expedition outside of Athkatla gave Neera another opportunity to make an individual visit to her Hidden Refuge, seeing as we did not expect to need her arcane abilities to deal with just one man. As it turned out, Neera ended up kicking herself for missing out on the magical adventure that was about to unfold... or perhaps not, given what happened.
When we found Valygar in his hidden cabin high in hills, he did not appear to be the sort of violent psychopath Tolgerias had described, and given the chance, calmly explained his side of the story, which turned out to be quite enlightening... He explained that he was the last living descendant of an infamous necromancer called Lavok, who terrorised the Sword Coast hundreds of years ago, before disappearing in a giant spherical construct believed capable of planar travel! A few months ago, the Planar Sphere reappeared inside Athkatla, and ever since, the Cowled Wizards have been trying to gain access to it.
The Cowled Wizards tracked down Valygar because they believe his blood holds the key to unlocking the sphere. However, Valygar is convinced that his infamous ancestor, Lavok, is likely still alive, and does not trust the intentions of the Cowled Wizards with the power that the Planar Sphere might possess. For good reason, given what we have seen of their behaviour. It is for that reason that he resisted arrest, leading to the death of two Cowled Enforcers in self-defense. Valygar candidly warned us that he would not be willingly taken alive to Tolgerias, though he did offer an intriguing alternative to prevent bloodshed... He would accompany us into the Sphere and slay Lavok, if he still lives, and give us the whatever treasures the necromancer possessed, in return for our assistance.
Valygar's story left us with a decision to make, though despite my desperation to be reunited with Imoen, there was only one decision we could make, and indeed only one decision a noble paladin like Keldorn would accept. We accepted Valygar's offer and traveled back to Athkatla with him in our company, but not to hand him over to the Cowled Wizards.
As suspected, Valygar was able to unlock the Planar Sphere with but a drop of his blood, allowing us to step into the most wonderous, if deadly, contraption. I had expected an interior about the size of the hold of a large ship, but incredibly, the Planar Sphere was much larger on the inside than it looked from the outside! What magic or technology allowed such a marvel, I do not know, and we did not have much time to appreciate it before we found ourselves in mortal peril.
The moment I touched a door leading deeper into the sphere, the whole structure hummed with energy, the room seemed to spin, and when it settled, to my horror looking through an observation deck, we were no longer in Faerun! Once more, we had become unwitting planar travelers, and this time, instead of a planar prison, we found ourselves on an abyssal plane of demon-infested nightmares! Thankfully, the sphere appeared to be impervious to forced entry from the outside, but we were stranded very far from home.
Unable to escape by leaving sphere, we proceeded the only way possible- further into it. The sphere was almost like a collection of mini-planes, with each new chamber or cavern revealing a new environment, with different life forms, some of which were exceedingly dangerous, like psychotic Haflings who seemed to be cannibals and shark-men I vaguely recall reading about in Candlekeep. It was almost as if Lavok was collecting specimens of races and cultures he had come across in his travels.
Ultimately we found Lavok himself deep within the sphere, apparently surprised by our ability to reach him. In desperation, he attacked, despite being outnumbered six to one, but his magic, powerful though it was, was easily dispelled by Keldorn, allowing Valygar and I to quickly subdue the necromancer. Just as Valygar was about to finish off his ancestor, Lavok, mortally wounded, pleaded for respite. He explained that he had been possessed by an evil spirit, and in fact was trying to prevent the monster from being unleashed upon the Prime Material Plane in all the months the Sphere sat inert within Athkatla. In defeating him, Lavok had been freed centuries of possession, and only with his cooperation, could we return home.
Both Valygar and I, our blades never leaving Lavok's neck, were sure that the necromancer was lying to save his skin, but incredibly, both Keldorn and Anomen determined his words to be truthful. With our guarded trust, Lavok explained that in order to return home, we must recharge the Planar Sphere with a new power source- the fresh heart of a Tanar'ri demon!
With no other option available, we unlocked the Planar Sphere from within and ventured into the blasted landscape beyond. It was a landscape of nightmare made flesh, where the ground itself, if it can be called that, pulsed with dark life, rivers of a black gooey liquid flowed in channels like veins within a gargantuan monstrosity. The sky was blood red, though lit by no obvious sun or stars, and a menacing mist descended, limiting our visibility to mere yards.
Though I did not voice my fear with my companions at the time, I felt certain that we would perish in that hellish place. Somehow though, we survived, not one, not two, but three Tanar'ri attacks! The first demon we encountered rashly attacked us head on, and quickly fell to our combined efforts of sword and sorcerery. Unfortunately the creature's heart was badly damaged in the battle, and thus unsuitable for our purpose. Pressing deeper into the mists, we encountered nothing but small packs of lesser beasts for what felt like hours, until the landscape opened up into a plain of sorts, eerily quiet and unnaturally cold. We had stumbled into the realm of a powerful Lea'Liyl demon, an elite among the Tanar'ri...
Flanked by its minions including Salamanders, Imps and Maurezhi, the monster attacked from the mists. Escape was out of the question, for it had deliberately lured us deep into its lair. Heavily outnumbered and assailed by such monsters, it seemed that our fate was sealed. However, even in the abyss, the favour of Helm was with us as Anomen called upon divine power to Smite the demons all around us. In a brilliant flash of light, the Lea'Liyl was blinded by Helm's cleansing power, allowing Keldorn to wade into the magical Webs created by Aerie and behead the monstrosity. With their overlord slain, its underlings scattered into the darkness.
After cutting out the Lea'Liyl's black heart, we hurried back towards the Planar Sphere, but this was easier said than done. Reality itself is warped in the magic of the abyss, and we spent hours stumbling through the mists, only to find ourselves returning to the same spot, all the while, packs of lesser demons stalked us from the shadows. We would have been trapped in the Lea'Liyl's accursed realm were it not for Keldorn's True Sight, which finally guided us through the darkness and deception. Before we could make our escape however, we were assailed by yet another Tanar'ri demon, possibly a lieutenant of the Lea'Liyl we slew. Already exhausted by our trials, we barely had the strength left to overcome the creature, hurriedly fled to the Sphere as yet more monstrosities closed in for the kill, emboldened by their growing numbers.
Back in the sphere, we rushed to the engine room in the heart of the Planar Sphere, with the demon heart still warm within Keldorn's now bloodied pack. Before we got there, there was another twist in the tale... Tolgerias and his apprentice had secretly followed us onto the sphere! Whilst we were gone, he had finished off Lavok, though not before forcing the necromancer to set the sphere ready for the return trip to Athkatla. With the demon heart required to power the journey, he no longer had a need for us either, and attacked with little hesitation and murderous intent.
A terrible Horrid Wilting spell nearly spelled disaster for our company, but thankfully most of us were able to avoid the full extent of the attack by dodging into side tunnels. When the cloud settled, we counterattacked. Once more an enemy mage had underestimated the prowess of Sir Keldorn Firecam, whose True Sight rendered his illusions useless, and Dispel Magic stripped Tolgerias, a powerful mage for sure, of all his arcane protections, allowing Anomen and I to strike him down with ease with sword and flail. Thankfully, with the demon heart in place, despite Lavok's demise, we were able to pilot the sphere safely back to its original position in the slums of Athkatla, ending our latest, and hopefully last, venture beyond the Prime Material Plane.
Valygar had promised us whatever treasures the Planar Sphere contained in return for our assistance, and sure enough there were a few artifacts of note, including a set of enchanted gauntlets that vastly increased Keldorn's strength and a Staff of Fire that Neera absolutely loved. In the end however, Valygar went even further, and offered me ownership of the Planar Sphere itself! As the last living Corthala, he was able to reprogram the sphere to recognise me as its master.
The brave ranger had demonstrated remarkable courage and skill in our ordeal in the abyss, and we invited him to join our company, but Valygar declined, saying that he had seen enough demons and mad mages to last a lifetime, and preferred to return to a simpler life in the wilderness. It is understandable for sure, and perhaps for the best, given some of Valygar's opinions regarding dangerous magic, and Neera's sensitivity about the subject!
Back on solid ground, we have hit a dead end in my mission to rescue Imoen. The Cowled Wizards are proving more treacherous and ruthless than we ever imagined, and I sorely fear for Imoen's welfare at their mercy. I don't see what other options we have... I don't think Keldorn and Aerie will like what I am going to suggest, but I don't see what else we can do. I cannot allow Imoen to rot in Spellhold any longer!
Wow that ended up being quite a wall of text! I got a bit carried away... The Planar Sphere is my favourite side quest in BG2, if you couldn't tell already.
Given that I went a bit later than I did in my first blind through, and my party-setup is significantly stronger, it was not as challenging as the first time around, and the battle against the Lea'Liyl was a bit anti-climatic as Anomen blinded him straight away. That said, the first Tanar'ri was actually quite a pain because I underestimated it and was conserving spells.
Oh I should mention that around this stage is also when I started to do more non-canon things. That's to say there's things I want to do in this playthrough because I missed them in my first playthrough, but I cannot justify them roleplaying-wise, or might not want to unnecessarily complicated the plot, cos "too much stuff happens" in Baldur's Gate (and RPGs in general) for a concise and compelling story. These are mostly just minor things, so I will do them quickly inbetween major quests, but won't consider them "canon" to my story.
First major example of that is the day of the two liches! Yes Jin and co. decided to kill two liches in one day. The one in the Old Tunnels leading to the Rift Device (Unseeing Eye quest) was surprisingly easy to kill, though I suppose I might have got lucky in killing it quickly. The one in the tavern in the Bridge District proved a bit trickier, as my no-prebuff rules left my party vulnerable to his nasty AoE spells in a confined space, and he also managed to summon a Pit Fiend to add to the fun. Non-the-less, liches are squishy once their protections are breached, and he went down fairly soon afterwards. I didn't pick up Daystar, which is one of the two items (Celestial Fury being the other) replaced in my game due to Jin's custom sword.
You've posted more very compelling and entertaining reading! Bravo!
I think you're one of the best posters of these kinds of run journals. You know how to find the perfect balance of detail to "getting to the point", that is, you cover the game events and flesh them out with just the right amount of story and detail to keep the reader interested without getting bogged down in minutae.
I'm also surprised by how much I like how you have split story and OOC explanation of what is actually happening in-game. I don't think I've seen any other journaler do that before, and I am finding it interesting and refreshing how much easier a game journal is to read when the story and the writer commentary are separated out from each other as yours are, than when they are all mixed together in the usual style.
It has been almost two weeks since my last update, in that time I have fought many battles and won a moral victory of sorts against the Cowled Wizards. However, my actions were not without consequence, and the cost of my hollow victory has been high, far too high...
The actions of Tolgerias further confirmed the unjust and tyrannical practices of the Cowled Wizards, and our conflict with him over the Planar Sphere snuffed out any hope we had of negotiating with them for Imoen's release. Unwilling to accept this injustice any longer, I proposed a radical plan of action to my companions... We would wage war against the corrupt organisation!
We had come far and made remarkable progress as a team since Jaheira, Yoshimo and I struggled out of the horrors beneath Waukeen's Promenade, on the day that Imoen was taken. Together with new companions, I have traveled the planes, acquired powerful weapons and artifacts and defeated mighty demons and mages alike. With the Planar Sphere to use as an impenetrable base of operations, I felt that we were strong enough to strike back at the power of the Cowled Wizards in Athkalta, and force them to give up Imoen through intimidation, where diplomacy had failed.
I was worried about the reaction of my companions when I explained my proposal, particularly Keldorn, whose views regarding Law and Order can be rather rigid. Thankfully, they were more sympathetic and receptive to my views than I feared, and had come to a similar conclusion regarding the Cowled Wizards, though Keldorn did insist that he and Anomen must seek sanction from the Order before they could participate in such politically dangerous activity.
So, whilst Keldorn spent days in discussion with senior members of the Order, trying to seek their support, or at least sanction, for military action against the Cowled Wizards, The rest of us spent our time trying to formulate a strategy for the battles to come, and win allies to our cause by helping the Amnian guards and the Order deal with a number of teething problems in the Bridge District. These included a group of rogue paladins expelled from the Order, who had turned to slave-smuggling and banditry, a child murder who had fled the Flaming Fists from Baldur's Gate and a particularly revolting serial killer who had a habit of skinning his victims. Whilst we brought the former-paladins and the child-killer to justice, the "Skinner" evaded capture following a difficult battle in his heavily trapped lair, and we could find no clues regarding where he might have fled to.
Finally, after five days of discussion and debate, the Order of the Radiant Heart had come to a decision. Despite our good deeds in and around the city, the Order were unwilling to commit openly to military action against the Cowled Wizards. However, they agreed that the wizards had overstepped all reasonable boundaries on their authority, and agreed to allow Anomen and Keldorn to assist us in our efforts against them. We were not entirely without new allies, because on her latest trip to the Wild Mage Hidden Refuge, Neera returned with a trio of her friends, Larz, Nara and Knoctor. Knocktor in particular would provide us with a decisive advantage in our war against the Cowls. The remarkable gnome was the inventor of the ingenious Hearthfire Amulet that allowed Neera to rescue so many Wild Mages from under the noses of the Red Wizards and the Cowls, and now, Knocktor would give us a weapon to negate the Cowled ones' greatest advantage- their overwhelming numbers in the heart of their powerbase within Athkatla.
Even the mighty Irenicus had to submit to defeat when faced when an escalating response from Cowled Enforcers that would have exhausted and overcome him eventually. To avoid a similar fate for us, Knocktor concocted a contraption he called the Arcane Beacon, which could be placed around the city and timed to release a small and harmless discharge of arcane energy, triggering a Cowled Enforcer response. By having beacons triggering at the same time in multiple occasions, we could force the Cowled Wizards to spread their forces thinly, and ambush them piecemeal. Such was their arrogance that their response had become entirely predictable and exploitable.
And so it began, operating from the safety of Planar Sphere, we launched our guerrilla war against the Cowled Wizards. Our initial attacks were a complete success, catching our enemy by surprise and destroying squadrons of enforcers before overwhelming reinforcements could arrive, thanks to distractions provided by Knocktor's beacons. Unfortunately, although we always tried to leave one enforcer alive to interrogate, they invariably refused to give up the location of Spellhold, or claimed that they did not know. To make matters worse, my war quickly spiraled out of control.
Ten days ago, a beacon misfired prematurely as Nara and Larz were placing them around the city, and the Cowled Enforcers reacted with ruthless efficiency, killing them before they could escape. We found their scorched bodies burnt beyond recognition dumped near the Sphere, in a thinly veiled threat for the rest of us. Four days ago, in a battle near the city gates, Neera had wild surge, and despite all the precautions we took, a massive fireball engulfed a squad of guards who had rushed to investigate the disturbance. All but one of them were killed instantly, and the survivor fled to spread word of our "reckless and dangerous" behaviour.
The tragic accident and the deaths of Nara and Larz shook our conviction significantly. To add salt to injury, all sorts of crazy rumours began to circulate regarding our actions, including a "wild mage invasion", "Baldur's Gate conspiracy" and "demonic swordsman"... Deaths, disappearances and destruction that gone on for weeks in the shadowy guild war between Shadow Thieves and an apparent challenger, which had nothing to do with us, were now being blamed on our actions! Almost overnight, our reputation plummeted from courageous heroes who had saved Trademeet, smashed slavers and apprehended some of the worst criminals in the city, to unstable psychopaths and terrorists seeking to bring ruin to Amn! Even the Order and the Temple of Helm, with whom we shared good relations, were forced to publicly renounce any and all connections to our company.
We had come too far to give up, but on our latest attack last night, we were dealt another grievous blow. After all the losses we had inflicted upon them, the Cowled Wizards had finally adapted and modified their response. They no longer reacted to every single beacon we triggered, but attacked in greater force in response to the beacons they did investigate. That led to the titanic battle last night, where a company of the most elite among the Cowled Wizards fell upon us. The leader among them, Zallanora possessed incredible power, including mastery of legendary spells like Time Stop. In the blink of an eye, she stripped us of our magical protections, stunned Anomen and then removed him from the battlefield with the most cruel Imprisonment spell. What followed was a desperate battle of wills as Keldorn and Zallanora fought to remove and maintain her arcane protections, whilst the rest of us battled against her companions. In the end, we emerged triumphant, but only barely, and at a grave cost.
Imprisonment is a cruel fate worse than death. Anomen has been trapped in suspended animation far beneath the earth. He is aware, but utterly helpless to free himself, or even move. In such a state, he cannot even die and will be trapped for eternity unless the spell is reversed. Unfortunately, the magic to reverse Imprisonment is as rare as it is to cast it, and far beyond what Aerie, Neera or myself are capable of. We spent all day running to every arcane merchant and mystic peddler we could find in the city, but none could offer a solution.
Our defeat of Zallanora and her elite enforcers appears to have broken the back of the Cowled Wizards within Athkatla. They no longer respond to beacons or the open use of arcane magic, or at least they no longer respond quickly and recklessly. However, for all the bloodshed and loss, not one of them have offered to release Imoen, or tell us the location of Spellhold. I am no closer to my goal and though I do not voice my fear, I dread to think what they may do to Imoen in retribution for our actions. Have I only doomed her in my efforts to save her? What now?
Clearly, now I am really taking liberties with my interpretation of events in the game. I am always uncomfortable with game mechanics that allow your party to accomplish unrealistic things, like wipe out a city or defeat an entire army. In this case, I thought that it was unrealistic that the Cowled Wizards always respond in such a predictable and limited level, rather than a constant escalating reaction as depicted in the Battle of Waukeen's Promenade. Hence my "arcane beacon" plot device.
The time that Keldorn was away from the party to hold discussions with the Order was actually the day I gave him to spend with his wife and family in his personal quest. I took the time to do a number of minor side quests as described without him. I also spread out the Cowled Wizard battles over quite a length of time so that I could do both the Mage and Fighter Stronghold quests in that period. In my first playthrough, I missed most of the De'Arnise Keep quests because my limited rest rules meant that I got through the game in a relatively short period of ingame time, and I wanted to experience both strongholds in this game (I installed a mod component to enable this).
Although I am imagining that the stuff happening at the keep is being dealt with by Nalia, and clearly I cannot be working with Cowled Wizards in the Planar Sphere when I am waging war against them at the same time, I wanted my non-canon actions to have consequences too. Hence Larz and Nara became wild mages recruited by Neera for the war effort.
Speaking of consequences... I tried to minimize the chance of collateral damage by fighting every battle at night in the Gate District, where there is normally only a single guardsman around, and I can localize the battle away from him. Unfortunately, despite Chaos Shield, Neera had an inopportune wild surge that killed that single guardsman instantly, resulting in a -10 penalty to reputation. I don't ever buy reputation from temples, so I will have to live with the consequences of my choices for the forseeable future. (I had literally just done a bunch of +1 reputation quests and had been on 20 for quite a while).
Finally the Battle Royale with the last group of Cowled Wizards... It had been relatively plain sailing thus far, wild surge aside. And then Zallanora and co. came out of nowhere and walloped me good! (I have never got so far with Cowled Wizard battles before)
First Attempt:
Reload Number 5: Zallanora and co. This was quite a difficulty spike. Zallanora time-stopped, Imprisoned Anomen and proceeded to nuke my party with nastiness. Despite having Keldorn, I really struggled to bring down her defenses, and keep them down.
Second Attempt:
Reload Number 6: Zallanora and co. This time, she went straight for the jugular and Imprisoned Jin... insta-reload.
Third attempt:
I resorted to cheese (by my personal standards), and trapped the battlefield. I think Yoshi got lucky and successfully planted 3/3 special traps and 1/3 normal trap. I certainly got lucky when those traps pretty much crippled the Cowled Wizards as soon as they arrived. Zallanora was dead before she cast a single spell.
This felt rather cheap and unsatisfying to me, as an extremely difficult battle was rendered completely harmless by good luck and metagame knowledge that told me to hit Zallanora with everything I had before her protections popped up. Hence...
Fourth (and canon) Attempt:
Zallanora once more Imprisoned Anomen (after the 2nd attempt I kept Jin back to throw spells and MMMs to avoid that risk), but I think she got Chaos'd or Fear'd and temporarily removed from the thick of the battle until most of her companions had been dealt with. Taking her down still took quite an effort and got rather messy...
... But I emerged victorious and accepted this version of events as canon. When I did so I did not know that there were no Freedom Scrolls pre-Underdark! But I decided to refrain from a fifth attempt and just accept the consequences.
The (somewhat temporary) loss of Anomen was unexpected and quite a big blow to the party. Although the Flail of Ages gets automatically transferred to Charname, Anomen was carrying some of the best equipment I had. I cheated in a Freedom Scroll and freed him temporarily to take a screencap of his equipment, encase it gets bugged after I return from the Underdark.
The biggest losses are the Gauntlets of Dexterity, which Keldorn could really do with if Anomen can't use it, and the Belt of Inertia Barrier, which was my plan to deal with Beholders. Of course Anomen was quite the boss in battle, so the character himself is the biggest loss of all, which leads to...
Comments
It is over, Sarevok is dead. The shadow that he has cast over my life has been lifted, and I am finally free to carry on with my life unmolested by assassins and conspiracies.
In the end, he made no effort to run or hide, though reaching him was no walk through the park. Once we made our way through the Thieves' Maze, filled with traps and ancient undead guardians, we found ourselves in the ruins of whatever civilisation that once stood before Baldur's Gate was built on top of it.
Mindless undead ghouls proved little more than a nuisance, but a group of bounty hunters sent by the Iron Throne's central headquarters proved far more dangerous. Thankfully, given that we were wary of any traps or ambushes Sarevok might have left for us, we were aware of the bounty hunters before they were aware of us, allowing for a decisive first strike against an otherwise potent enemy.
Deeper into the Under City, we came upon one of the only buildings that had not crumbled into ruin... a Temple of Bhaal. I knew then that Sarevok awaited within. He must have still hoped that defeating me in a shrine devoted our divine father, might somehow still prove his worth to inherit the power of murder.
Before we could confront Sarevok however, Tamoko stood guard outside the temple. The look in her eyes told me that there could be no negotiation, no alternative, and that she would offer battle as she had promised. She was a brave and honourable warrior, and so I engaged her in battle on equal terms, without the assistance of my companions. I took no comfort in taking her life, but I had no choice.
Within the Temple Sarevok awaited with three of his most fanatical followers. Angelo, a former officer of the Flaming Fists, and likely the man responsible for Scar's death. Tazok, the brutish half-ogre and field commander of Sarevok's mercenaries and a mage who I'd later learn was named Semaj. Our strategy was similar to what we did in the Ducal Palace. Namely Neera attempted to control the battlefield with Web and various other disabling spells, whilst we were able to operate reasonably freely with Free Movement enchantment.
Semaj was the first to fall. Keen to avoid the sticky webs that quickly covered half of the temple, he teleported straight towards us, where Imoen and Khalid quickly brought down his protection spells with Dispelling Arrows, leaving him vulnerable to blade and missiles alike. Angelo proved to be far more dangerous. His spell protections meant that he was unaffected by Neera's webs, and he fired a barrage of explosive Arrows of Detonation at us, causing immense damage that we barely mitigated by summoning war dogs to distract him, whilst shooting back with our own Biting Arrows and Magic Missiles.
Driven on by sheer hatred and madness, the webs did not hold Sarevok long, even as Tazok struggled to free himself, and soon the armoured behemoth fell upon us with unnatural ferocity. It took the combined strength of Jaheira, Yeslick and myself to hold him at bay, and we all suffered serious gashes and bruises trying to do so. The tide finally turned when Khalid, Neera and Imoen had finally silenced Angelo's firepower, and were able to add their own ranged support to our combat efforts.
As a barrage of Magic Missiles struck Sarevok for the umpteenth time, sending him staggering briefly, I saw my opening and struck Heaven Reliant deep into a small chink in his blackened armour. As life itself drained from his body, I could sense the essence of Bhaal leaving with it, and within moments, Sarevok's earthly form had disintegrated into dust. Seeing his master vanquished before his very eyes, Tazok finally dropped his weapons in surrender and despair. Yeslick offered him no such mercy, and caved in his chest with his warhammer.
And so ends this dark chapter of my life. It has only been a little more than a hundred days since I left Candlekeep on that fateful morning with Gorion. I feel as if a decade has passed since then, as I met lifelong friends and companions and overcame perils I could not have fathomed. I have suffered the terrible pain of loss, and the discovery of my dark heritage, but I have also experienced the ecstasy of victory and the warmth of friendship and love. I left Candlekeep a boy, I am now a man.
Reloads
No. 17: I forgot about the Arrows of Detonation one of the bounty hunters packed... Despite managing to catch the them with Web, the "archer of fiery death" made most of his saves and wreaked havoc upon my party.
No. 18: I didn't managed to get a screencap, but once ,my party took a battering from Arrows of Detonation, fired by Angelo this time. Crucially this left Jin weakened, and he went down in seconds when Sarevok suddenly burst from the webs and sliced and diced him before I could retreat.
Some reflections at the end of the BG1 journey first, in no particular order...
1) I discovered a few new spells that were game changing. (I say discover, I mean I used them for the first time.) Silence makes a lot of BG1 mages trivial, casting Slow on the enemy is as good as casting Haste on your party, minus the fatigue factor, which matters when I play limited-rest, and also didn't really want to cast any spells on my party with Neera.
2) Wild Mages are over-rated. Okay perhaps I just haven't worked out how to use Neera properly, but just the risk of crippling surges meant that I couldn't use her for any protection or buffing spells, and although her surges only caused one direct reload, there were a few close-calls where a much needed spell didn't fire off properly. I only recall one positive wild surge where she double-webbed a pack of dire wolves and vampiric wolves.
3) BG1NPC Project is awesome! I am so grateful to @AstroBryGuy for bringing it up to date for BG:EE.
4) I know the melee metagame is beeline to dual-wielding asap, but Single Weapon style is not that bad. It helps with survivability in BG1 and against tough enemies who you'd struggle to hit with anything other than a critical roll, it's not bad having essentially double chance of rolling criticals.
5) The best thing about Minsc (aside from Boo) is his carrying capacity! Not having anyone with more than Str 15 for large parts of the game made inventory management really. For roleplay purposes I never loot non-magical weapons and armour anyway, but in this game I had to ignore some +1 stuff too because I didn't want to make repeated shop trips.
6) On the subject of strength. Strength potions are game changing. (Potions are in general) They last 2 hours, which means that towards the end game, all my warriors had 20+ strength almost permanently! Potion of Invulnerability is also a life-saver for a Kensai. Long duration means that I don't think of them as short-term pre-buffs, so I have no roleplay problems with using before a likely battle.
Day 1, 2 Mirtul, 1369
For the inaugural entry of my new diary, this is as inauspicious as it gets. I have started a new journal because my old diary is lost, but that pales into insignificance compared to everything else that I have lost recently.
A few weeks ago I was attacked by shadowy figures in the night, and along with my companions, Imoen, Jaheira and Khalid, incapacitated and captured. I woke after an unknown period of time, face to face with my captor, a mage whose name I would later learn to be Irenicus. I have no knowledge of him beyond his name and the fact that he possesses immense power, and a callous disregard for others that sends a chill down my spine.
I was separated from my companions, utterly alone and locked within a cage so small that I could not lie down to rest. For a few days Irenicus did not even acknowledge my existence, but when he did, I wished he had continued to ignore me. He made no demands or offers, and simply proceeded to conduct "experiments" on me, and by experiment, I mean torture. He ranted ceaselessly about unlocking the power within whilst he inflicted unimaginable pain upon my body and mind. In my darkest moments, I feared that I was losing my very sanity as nightmare and reality blurred until I could no longer tell them apart... all the while something primal and terrifying struggled to be unleashed.
I had hoped that with the death of Sarevok, Aluando's Prophecy had been thwarted, and that the legacy of my dark heritage could be forgotten. Alas, though I hate to admit it, the essence of the dead god of murder lives on within me, and whatever Irenicus has done has brought it closer to the surface. I think it is that very essence that has kept me alive through the horrific torment that I have been subjected to, though I fear it is also that very essence that drew Irenicus to me and my companions in the first place.
After what felt like an eternity, I was suddenly woken after my latest session of torment by Imoen. At first I thought it was an illusion, or a cruel trick, but she freed me from my cage and shook me to my senses. The dungeon that we were held in was under attack. Though it did not appear to be a rescue operation for our benefit, the chaos gave Imoen the opportunity to escape from her own cell. I was relieved that she was alive, though the scar on her face and the look in her eyes told me that she had not been spared from suffering either, and I was too afraid to ask what he had done to her and why.
Thankfully, shortly after our escape, we found Jaheira, who seemed in reasonably good health in comparison to Imoen and I, and she would prove instrumental in our great escape, seeing as my sword arm was shattered and useless, and Imoen was still just beginning to master basic magic. As we (by we, I mean Imoen and Jaheira) battled our way through corridors patrolled by goblins and Duergar, we made the sickening discovery of Khalid's body, mutilated almost beyond recognition. Imoen claimed that she saw Irenicus kill Khalid with a simple death spell, before inflicting the horrific injuries to his body to "show her death"... I can only hope that she was telling the truth. Khalid is too noble, courageous and decent of a man to deserve such a cruel fate.
Past rooms filled with glass jars that held... human remains... that were somehow still alive, Jaheira slew a monstrous Otyugh with nothing but a club in what can only described as a waste disposal pit. Beyond there we stumbled into a bizarre plane of air that was revealed to be the home of a Djinni enslaved by Irenicus. The Djinni promised to return Heaven Reliant to me if we helped to free him from Irenicus. I had thought that my precious blade was lost to me, and deeply relieved that the Djinni honoured his promise when we returned with the lamp that freed him. Unfortunately, the return of Heaven Reliant did not restore my sword arm, so it could make little difference to our immediate circumstances.
We also came upon other victims of Irenicus in our efforts to escape. There was a trio of Dryads he had enslaved as concubines, who we promised to free by delivering their acorns to their grove in the Windspear Hills. We also happened upon a Kozakuran warrior called Yoshimo, whose story seemed similar to our own- attacked in the night, captured and tortured for our captor's amusement. We gladly welcomed his bow and katana to our company. Together the four of us battled through more Duergar, mephits and others before finally finding the exit leading to the surface, where a battle raged between Irenicus and the assailants that stormed his dungeon.
Only now did we witness the awesome power that Irenicus possessed. He slew droves of warriors that threw themselves at him with fanatical courage. Judging by their garb, and the fact that we later discovered that we were in Athkatla, the capital of Amn, we suspect the warriors to be the infamous Shadow Thieves of Amn. However, they stood no chance in the face of Irenicus' sorcery. Soon the air crackled with arcane energy and a squad of hooded, or rather cowled, mages teleported into the fray, demanding that Irenicus cease his spellcasting.
Our captor slaughtered the mages with contemptuous ease, but more and more of them teleported into battle, until eventually, Irenicus just stopped, and calmly agreed to hand himself into the custody of the mages we'd later know as Cowled Wizards. He had a condition though... that Imoen must be taken with him! To my astonishment and shock, the Cowled Wizards accepted his offer and took Imoen in broad daylight, teleporting her away before I could react and then teleporting away themselves, without so much as offering any explanation for their actions!
As the smoke from the battle settled, we realised that we were in the famous Waukeen's Promenade of Athkatla, a place I had read about, but never imagined visiting, let alone in such circumstances. Battered, bruised and exhausted beyond physical endurance, we stumbled into the nearest inn for much needed rest. Tomorrow we shall head to the Government District at first light to demand Imoen's release and an explanation for the torment we have been through, and Khalid... what he did to Khalid.
Location: Athkalta, Mithrest Inn.
I realised that my updates are pretty lengthy, and with pictures included, a page of this thread can take a long time to load. So I think I'll split Jin's journals from ooc reflections about the game.
This BG2:EE playthrough will use the same "house rules" as I listed in the original post at the very start of the thread. Although BG2 characters are significantly less vulnerable than BG1 ones, I am even more nervous about permanent death because only one character (Neera) will be protected from this point onwards, so I need to be extra vigilant at all times.
I am still playing on Core Rules, though I have made a few minor changes to the game. In addition to a few cosmetic changes:
1) I removed Anomen's proficiency in slings and put it into Flails. (Given that I have completely embargoed slings for all my characters, this seems fair.)
2) I increased Charname's experience to 250k so that he hit lv9 Kensai at the very start, allowing me to begin the dual-class process from the offset. I did this so that my roleplay choices did not overly penalize my character. If I dual-classed at lv8, Charname would not obtain his first proficiency point in Dual-Wielding until endgame SoA or early ToB (3M xp). Besides it's not hard to imagine that he did Adventure Y and gained 100k xp to make up the difference between BG1 and BG2.
3) I created a new version of Heaven Reliant +3. It replaces Celestial Fury and Daystar from my game.
Heaven Reliant +3
Combat abilities:
– Eighteen Dragons: Hit target must save vs. Spell or be stunned for 1 round
– Nine Yin Strike: 5% chance of an extra 20 electrical damage to hit target
Charge abilities:
– Sunray once per day
Damage: 3d6 (Save vs. Spell or be blinded for 1 turn)
Undead: An additional 1d6 points of damage per level of caster (Save vs. Spell or be destroyed)
Range: 20 ft.
Area: 30-ft. radius
– Fireshield (Red)
Fire Resistance: +50%
Special: Any who strike the user within a 5-ft.radius suffers 1d8+2 fire damage
Duration: 18 rounds
Area of Effect: The user
Equipped abilities:
– Armor Class: +1
THAC0: +3
Damage: 1d8+3 (slashing or piercing)
Speed Factor: 1
Proficiency type: Long Sword
Type: One-handed
Requires:
6 Strength
Weight: 3
4) This isn't really a change, but I pretended that Minsc was not in the cage in the dungeon. This means that I cannot use him in ToB, and in the short term it made the normally routine escape from Chateu Irenicus very interesting indeed given that I had a useless Charname (due to dual-classing) and "house-rules" that prevented resting. So the great escape was heavily reliant on Jaheira and the careful rationing of spells, potions and scrolls. I left the dungeon with pretty much just the clothes on their backs!
Amn is sick, sick with a cancerous corruption at its very core. It is no wonder evil such as Irenicus was able to take root within the heart of Athkatla. The government is inept and detached from its people, violence and injustice runs rampant and the law serves the rich and powerful, and not the people it is supposed to protect.
We spent nearly a whole day being bounced from one government official to another, none of whom would, or could, provide any explanation for what we had been subjected to beneath Waukeen's Promenade. The Cowled Wizards are apparently above the law, and serve as judge, jury and executioner when it comes to issues of sorcery within the city. They hold people they consider to be "deviants" in a facility known as Spellhold, but nobody even knows where it is, and those taken by the wizards are never seen again! It is absurd that such an organisation is tolerated within what is supposedly the greatest civilisation in Faerun!
Having run only into dead ends through official channels, we began our own investigation into the Cowled Wizards and Irenicus, starting at Waukeen's Promenade, where it all happened. The dungeon itself had been completely sealed in by tonnes of rock and soil, likely due to structural damage caused by the intense battle near the entrance. However, we found quite a commotion at a circus tent nearby.
A line of Amnish soldiers were holding back a crowd of hysterical civilians. Apparently dozens of people were trapped within the circus, and all who had gone within to investigate had not returned. The Amnish soldiers were waiting for Cowled Wizards for help, but the wizards seemed unconcerned with the peril of the common folk. Given the proximity to the dungeon where we were held, we volunteered to investigate the circus, hoping to find clues before the Cowled Wizards eventually arrived.
The moment we entered the circus, it seemed as if we had been transported to another plane once more, though in time we'd discover that it was a series of powerful illusions that were strong enough to cause real death and injury. In the ground level of the tower of illusions, we came upon all manner of vicious monsters near a group of civilians. Just before we leapt into action to save what seemed like defenceless circus-goers, one of the "monsters", an ogre, spoke with a most sweet voice, warning us that it was all an illusion, and that the monsters were people and the people were monsters.
Jaheira verified the "ogre's" claim with her divine magic before we slew the real monsters and restored her to her real form. The transformation could not be more dramatic... from a brutish ogre to an elegant elf whose beauty took my breath away. She introduced herself as Aerie, and explained that a gnome illusionist by the name of Kalah, was responsible for the outrage. Aerie turned out to be a capable mage and cleric, and lent her spells to our efforts as we battled our way through yet more illusions before confronting Kalah himself. In the end Kalah proved to be much weaker than the illusions he was responsible for, though he did not divulge the identity of his benefactor before his demise. We could find no evidence linking Irenicus to the disturbance at the circus.
After making sure that her adoptive "uncle", a gnome called Quayle, was fine, and tending to the wounds of survivors from the circus, Aerie offered to join our company in gratitude for our rescue after we told her of our circumstances. I am most grateful for her company.
Apart from Heaven Reliant, we had lost all the wealth and valuables we had obtained from our adventures further north, and staying in the Mithrest was not an option we could afford for the long run, so we went to the slums in search of cheaper accommodation. Shortly after arriving in the slums we were approached by a shady figure who introduced himself as Gaelen Bayle. The man seemed to know much of our situation, and claimed that his associates, who he refused to name, could help us rescue Imoen... in exchange for 20,000 gold!
I have a number of theories regarding this man's identity and motivation. He could be a simple low-life conman who might have witnessed the disturbance in Waukeen's Promenade, and intends to take the gold and run. More likely, he works for the Shadow Thieves, though whether they have the will or the ability to rescue Imoen, I do not know. The third possibility is that he works for the Cowled Wizards themselves, and this is their version of an extortion racket. In any case we have no gold to speak of, and we would do well to avoid giving away backpack loads of it to strangers.
Taking leave of Gaelen Bayle, we found our way to the Copper Coronet, an inn in the roughest part of town, where our limited gold would last the longest. We walked in on what I initially thought was a random bar brawl, until we realised that the guards were fighting just one man, a warrior-cleric of Helm. Given the numerous times that priests of Helm have nursed myself and members of my party to health from serious injuries, and the virtuous Helmites we have generally encountered, we leapt into action to help the lone warrior.
The guards retreated in the face of our intervention, and the warrior introduced himself as Anomen, an aspiring knight of the Order of the Radiant Heart. He had discovered that the Copper Coronet was involved in all manner illegal and immoral activity, the most heinous of which was the use of slaves in gladiatorial pit fights for the amusement of its richer patrons. Together with Anomen, we subdued the owner of the institution and stormed the backrooms, where we discovered prostitutes, stores of Black Lotus and cells filled with slaves, including gladiators and children. Once freed, the leader of the slaves, Hendak, led the gladiators in a general uprising, chasing off the remaining guards. I saw no reason to intervene as Hendak executed the thoroughly unpleasant owner in retribution for years of suffering, and took the Copper Coronet for himself and other former-slaves.
Hendak offered his sincere gratitude, but informed us that the slaver menace was not confined to the Copper Coronet, and that a bigger base of operations was hidden to the east the slums. Of course the Amnish guards had been bribed to turn a blind eye to the most vile practise being carried out in the heart of the capital, so we took the law into our own hands. Together with freed gladiators, we stormed the slaver compound, killing scores of the bastards and freeing dozens of slaves, including children.
Aerie, who had seemed shy and somewhat uncomfortable with violence, appeared especially determined in this battle. When I asked her about this, she explained her sorrowful tale. She is in fact an Avariel, an winged elf, who was captured by slavers when she was just a child. They locked her in a tiny cage, causing her wings to atrophy until her "owners" hacked them off with a rusty saw, and sold her onto the circus as she was no longer valuable. My heart ached for Aerie as she told her tale, and I understood why she felt so strongly for all the children locked in cages by the slavers.
With the slavers in the slums smashed, Anomen offered his thanks and service. I was of course very grateful to have another ally on this dangerous and uncertain path, though having spoken more with Anomen, he is not quite the noble Helmite I initially thought. He DOES seek to do good, but he seems to do it for the glory and respect that he feels he deserves, rather than actually seeking to help those in need. That said he is a most capable warrior and I'd gladly endure a few tall tales and grand boasts if he could help us rescue Imoen and visit retribution upon Irenicus.
Location: Athkatla, Copper Coronet
State of the Party
It has been a tenday since Imoen was taken, and though we have covered much ground, we have made frustratingly little progress towards her rescue, and I am starting to think that my "divine heritage" has somehow cursed me with misfortune so that trouble follows me like moth to flame. I have not voiced this fear to my companions... Am I being silly? Or am I being selfish because I am afraid to be alone in these dire circumstances?
We were in the Bridge District when we came across an old friend, of sorts, Neera! I say "of sorts" because Neera is as unpredictable as her magic and I cannot fathom her intentions and moods any better than I can predict the weather. After the row that ended our brief "romance", if you can call it that, she surprised me by standing by my side as we faced the terrible dangers of Durlag's Tower and confronted Aec'Letec and Sarevok. However not long after our victory in Baldur's Gate, she just disappeared with no explanation, thankfully without having first knocked me out with a frying pan. We would have worried for her safety if she had not already complained about being bored with life in the city, so we assumed that she simply left for further adventures elsewhere.
As it happens Neera had decided that she was sick of living in fear of the Red Wizards of Thay, who continued to hunt down Wild Mages like animals for their nefarious experiments. She went in search of others of her kind and brought them together for mutual protection in a hidden refuge in the forests south of Athkatla. When we bumped into her in the Bridge District, she had just saved a young child from the grips of a squadron of Red Wizards. However, having given the child the means of teleporting to the refuge, she was marooned in the city herself.
It genuinely pleases me that Neera is taking responsibility and helping others, and not as selfish and self-centered as I thought. With Red Wizards once more on her tail, we offered to escort Neera back to the hidden refuge she had set up, and I was honoured that she trusted us with her secret. She was horrified to learn what had happened to Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira and I, as it is pretty much her own worst nightmare of what would happen if the Red Wizards caught her. Hence, after checking that the girl she saved was safe and that the hidden refuge was in good order, Neera offered to join our company once more to help save Imoen. I forget that for all the good times I had with Neera, she was always closer to Imoen... I guess the girls had more in common with each other.
Returning to Athkatla, two crises occurred in quick succession that distracted us from any further investigation into the Cowled Wizards. First we received shocking news that Anomen's sister had been murdered. Anomen had not mentioned that he was the son of one of the richest merchant families in the city, or rather once one of the richest. Now all the Delryn family owns is a large mansion in the government district that they could barely afford to upkeep, after the family business was ruined by a competitor called Saerk Farrahd. Saerk is strongly suspected of being involved in the murder, but there was no concrete evidence to prove it. Anomen demonstrated remarkable restraint to resist his own desire for vengeance, and his father's demand for it. Jaheira and Aerie argued for restraint whilst Yoshimo urged justice by the blade. I held my tongue because I didn't know what to say... all I know is that I doubt I'd have the same self-control that Anomen has demonstrated, if somebody had harmed those I cared about... if Irenicus were infront of me now. In any case, this is a personal matter and I respect Anomen's decision to leave it to the authorities rather than taking the law into his own hands without clear proof of Saerk's guilt.
After another day of drama we stopped off in the Sea's Bounty to rest for the night, only to run into somebody from Jaheira's past, an ex-baron Jaheira revealed as a slave trader several years ago, who harboured a fanatical desire for revenge all this time for the ruin it caused. Baron Ployer had used the last of resources to hire the services of powerful mage-assassins, who cursed Jaheira with a wasting spell that would result in a slow and painful death if not cured.
As Baron Ployer teleported away with his hired mages, we found ourselves in a race against time to save Jaheira. Tracking down the bastard was not easy, but we barely managed it before Jaheira was lost for good. After defeating Baron Ployer and the mages he hired, Aerie and Neera were able to discern the properties of the curse from the notes the mages carried, and concoct the counter-spell just in time as Jaheira drifted between life and death. It scared me to death that we so nearly lost Jaheira, so soon after I lost Imoen and Khalid, I don't think I could bear losing my last guardian and guide.
Even with the curse lifted, it has taken Jaheira days to recover from its effects, but she insists that she is fully fighting fit now. I wish I could say the same for myself. Whatever injuries Irenicus inflicted on my body, it seems to be more than simple physical injury. We have visited a number of healers and temples, but none could restore the strength I once possessed in my sword arm. I have tried to train with Heaven Reliant in my left hand, but despite my best efforts, it is clumsy and effective.
Whilst my body remains weak from my trials and tribulations in captivity, my mind seems to have been... expanded, somehow. I have gained an instinctive understanding of the Weave and the logic of spell-craft. It goes far beyond the limited powers I have possessed since the day of the revelation of my heritage. Those powers were innate, I knew I could heal minor injuries and cure poisons, or enhance my strength, speed and endurance for a short period, but I didn't know why or how, I just knew that I could. Now, ever since I escaped from that accursed dungeon, arcane scrolls that were once meaningless to me can be understood with a bare minimum of effort. I have learnt more spells in the last few days than most mage-adepts do so in years!
How is this happening? I do not know, though I suspect it has something to do with my heritage, and perhaps whatever Irenicus did to me... For now I can be grateful that I am not as useless in battle as I was during our jailbreak, as although Heaven Reliant remains impotent, I can at least lend sorcery to the effort. The source of this new-found power does concerns me, Gorion always warned me to steer clear of arcane magic, and my recent studies feel like a betrayal of his trust. But what option do I have? I need the strength to survive so that I can save Imoen, and visit justice upon the deviant that murdered Khalid!
Whilst Jaheira has been bedbound, we have tried to petition the government once more for the release of Imoen, and Anomen has sought assistance from his superiors in the Order, but nothing has borne fruit thus far. Frustratingly, Gaelen Bayle remains the only clear lead and option we have come across thus far, and so we have decided to start doing what we can to raise the gold he demanded, just encase more reasonable options do not present themselves.
It is for that reason that we find ourselves on the road to Trademeet, which as the name suggests, is an important trading town to the southeast of Athkatla. News from the town say that it is under attack by wild animals from the forest around it, and the High Merchant Lord of Trademeet will offer a handsome reward for any who can solve their problems.
Knowing my luck, that problem will probably be a dragon!
Well the troubles of Trademeet were not the doing of a dragon, thankfully, though in trying to resolve them, we still came perilously close to disaster.
Before we had even arrived, we had heard rumours that the town was under attack by wild beasts, likely controlled by the druids that lived in a grove nearby. Jaheira correctly guessed that there must have been a change of leadership at the grove, given that the druids had lived in relative peace with Trademeet for generations. It did not take us long to discover the presence of Shadow Druids that confirmed her suspicions.
As if the menace of the Shadow Druids were not bad enough, Trademeet was also held to ransom by a group of Dao genies from Calimshaan, who insisted that the citizens hand over a Rakshasa they were hunting, and believed to be disguised in human form in the area. How they expected anyone to be able to distinguish a Rakshasa in disguise when they themselves could not, I do not know, but we decided to deal with one problem at a time, and travel to the druid grove to deal with the animal attacks first. As it happens, that's where we found the Rakshasa too.
The journey to the druid grove was not easy, the Shadow Druids had allowed foul creatures like trolls to infest the forest, and we were forced to defend ourselves from fanatical druids on a number of occasions too, which was unfortunate as Jaheira had hoped to reason with her kin without bloodshed. Whilst seeking shelter for the night, we came upon a small cottage in the deep forest, inhabited by an elderly women and her two sisters.
We should have known something was off about the situation, the unlikeliness that three apparently defenceless old women could survive in a forest full of vicious trolls and aggressive druids... Complacency very nearly got us all killed, as the three sisters attacked us in the middle of the night, and revealed themselves as a trio of Rakshasa, led by Ithafeer, the very fiend the Dao Djinni were hunting. Thankfully Aerie, being an elf, did not sleep like the rest of us, and emerged from her trance to raise the alarm.
Rising quickly to the danger, we fought back with spell, blade and hammer, but nothing seemed to harm the creatures, and the cottage soon filled with noxious gas that threatened to choke the life from our lungs. Just as I was about to pass out, I saw a flash of light, a feeling of weightlessness and then a crunching pain as I landed. In her panic and desperation, Neera had resorted to using Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, and teleported us out of the cottage just in time. She didn't control it well, so we ended up falling from quite a height, but she explained that it was safer than possibly materializing us buried in the ground. Seeing as the alternative was certain death, I could not begrudge her for broken bones and impact injuries, which though painful, were not beyond the healing magic within our company.
We hid for a full day and night encase the Rakshasa were hunting us, as well as recovering from our injuries, before pressing onward to the druid grove. When we arrived, we discovered that the druid leadership had been usurped by Faldorn, a Shadow Druid who sought to wage war against civilisation itself, like those we encountered in the Cloakwood. Heavily outnumbered in the heart of the druid grove, a direct battle would have been a bloodbath, and quite likely seal our own demise. However, Jaheira challenged Faldorn directly in the ancient custom of the druids, a single combat to the death with no equipment allowed.
I looked on helplessly as Jaheira stepped into the ring alone- the druids only accepted challengers from among their own. And in any case, Jaheira is far more competent with the ceremonial quarterstaff each combatant was given... not that she needed it! Because as soon as the duel began, Jaheira transformed into a bear! I had no idea that she could do that! I suppose it's because for as long as I have known her, she has fought clad in heavy armour, which must make shape-shifting inconvenient to say the least. Faldorn summoned a swarm of biting insects in response, a spell I have witnessed Jaheira use to devastating effect against our enemies. However, on this occasion, Jaheira's ferocity, in bear form, proved too much for Faldorn, and she emerged victorious. Jaheira's victory gave her the power to appoint a moderate druid as temporary arch-druid for the grove, and declared an end to the druid raids against Trademeet.
We returned to Trademeet with mixed news. The animal attacks were ended, but the Dao genies' blockade continued, and with their hiding location discovered, the Rakshasa had no doubt moved on. Starved of food and other essential supplies for weeks, Trademeet was on the edge of disaster. We pleaded with the Dao leader, Khan Zahraa, for understanding that the Rakshasa were not in Trademeet, and no doubt escaped far from the area, but he could not be moved, and demanded that we bring the creatures' heads in compensation for our "failure".
We were left with no choice. Though it is dangerous to offend genies of any variety, we could not stand by and watch Trademeet starve and people die as a result of the Dao's unreasonable demands. So, in the middle of the night, with the aid of High Lord Logan Coprith and his soldiers, we led a surprise attack on the Dao camp. The Djinni are powerful beings, but their arrogance blinded them to the danger that "mere mortals" could pose, and we cut a path to Khan Zahraa himself and struck him down. With their leader fallen, the remaining Dao Djinni teleported away.
For now Trademeet is safe, and Lord Coprith provided a fair reward for our efforts with a decent sum of gold as well as a powerful Belt of Inertial Barrier and Cloak of Displacement. In addition statues bearing our resemblance were erected in the town square to honour the "Heroes of Trademeet". I remain uneasy however... the Dao Djinni may return with retribution in mind, and the powerful Rakshasa remain on the loose. There was nothing we could do about either of those problems, so we returned to Athkatla, coin purses significantly swelled, though nowhere near enough to pay Gaelen Bayle's outrageous price, even if we were desperate enough to place our trust in such an individual.
Back in the city, we continued to explore every avenue we could think of to find Spellhold, or allies that might have the influence necessary to free Imoen from the Cowled Wizards. The Temple of Helm admitted that they had little influence on the wizards, though High Watcher Oisig promised to do what he could if we would assist the church's investigation into a deviant cult calling itself the Unseeing Eye. Before we could make any progress however, a more urgent crisis arose to take our priority, a young woman named Nalia found us in the Copper Coronet, having heard of what we had done for Trademeet, she desperately sought our assistance to save her home from a troll attack. I must admit that the fact that her "home" was the mighty De'Arnise Keep made her pleas all the more convincing. If we could secure the favour of an influential Amnian noble like Lord De'Arnise, perhaps he could help us free Imoen!
Just before we set off once more, Anomen was summoned to the Order headquarters. Word of his deeds in Trademeet had reached them, and they deemed him ready for the test of knighthood. Though Anomen's arrogance and attitude grates on my nerves on occasion, I was much pleased that he passed the test and officially became a Knight of the Order of the Radiant Heart. I know how much it means to him.
As Nalia joined us, Neera left, temporarily, she assured us. At least she told us before she left this time! And I totally understand, she was worried about the safety of the hidden refuge, and wanted to check in from time to time. She promised to find us at the Copper Coronet when we return.
Location: Highway to the De'Arnise Keep
For a change, I decided to pretend that Nalia wasn't there and go to Trademeet after the slavers, mostly because I intended to replace Jaheira soon, but wanted to do Trademeet with her in the party for roleplay reasons. Metagaming-wise, I was reluctant to lose Jaheira before Jin recovered his Kensai levels, which would leave the party without a capable tank.
I badly underestimated the difficulty I'd face in Trademeet (or rather the Druid Grove). This early in the game, I literally had no weapons capable of harming Rakshasa, save for Belm, which I forgot to pick up before the fight. With Anomen wearing only Platemail at this point, and nothing to compensate for his low Dexterity, even normal trolls were a serious pain to bring down, and any notions I had of doing all of the Druid Grove without resting went out of the window quickly after the first troll pack.
Incredibly though, despite the close shave with the Rakshasa, no reloads... thus far.
I just realised that there were two things I forgot to mention before the next update for the De'Arnise Keep. Firstly the state of the party at the end of Trademeet:
And when I said "no reloads... thus far". That was a semi-truth. There were no reloads up to the conclusion of the Trademeet quests, but I suffered my first party-wipe against the Den of the Seven Vales party. Although Trademeet gave me way more gold than I expected, I ended up spending most of it on Belt of Inertia Barrier and Cloak of Displacement (cosmetic mod means you don't see it in the screencaps), which left me still lacking some basic equipment like Full-Plate for Anomen and Jaheira, a much-needed strength belt, and the Robe of Vecna. Hence I decided to take on that party for some much-needed "basic" gear.
However, due to my reluctance to use short-duration prebuffs, and the confined space of the tavern, I have always found that battle to be quite tricky, and so it proved...
Reload No.1: Den of the Seven Vales
... I lost half the party to Chaos, and couldn't stop the dwarf chopping Jin to pieces. Anomen also got chunked in two hits after that screencap was taken. On my second attempt Jaheira managed to get Insect Plague off earlier and shut down enemy spellcasting, which made things much easier.
Our quest to save the De'Arnise Keep received an unexpected boon night before we arrived. I had a nightmare of sorts, not unlike those I had when I first discovered the truth about my heritage, except this time I saw Irenicus hurting Imoen, conducting experiments on her as he had done upon me. A rage rose up within me, burning hatred and ... murderous desire, like nothing I have ever experienced before. In my dream I threw myself at Irenicus, Heaven Reliant in hand, the magical weakness that had crippled my body in recent weeks gone, replaced with renewed strength and vigor. Irenicus looked surprised, but when I struck him through the heart with my blade, he smiled.
I awoke with a cold sweat, and felt myself drawn to Heaven Reliant. When I drew the blade from its scabbard, it glowed with a bright blue light that was not there before, and I felt my body infused with strength, like in my dream. Flames erupted around me, and I feared that I would burn our camp down, but the fire was of a magical nature, protecting me, but harmless to my surroundings. Of course my companions were initially alarmed, but I knew that somehow, Heaven Reliant had restored my vitality and health. What is the source of this power? Is it within the blade or within my divine essence? I do not know. For now, it seems to be a boon. Will there be a cost for this power? Time will tell.
Unfortunately, for all our haste to reach the De'Arnise Keep, we had come too late. The trolls had already broken into the fortress, and the bodies of scores of men-at-arms were cruelly hung at the gates, impaled upon wooden spikes. Through distraught tears, Nalia pointed us towards a secondary camp hidden in the woods nearby, where the men were told to regroup should the defenses be overrun. There were a scant few survivors gathered there, and Lord De'Arnise was not among them.
In the desperate hope of finding survivors within, we devised a plan of attack to retake the keep. Using Nalia's intimate knowledge of her home, we sneaked into the fortress through a secret tunnel she had often used to sneak out for adventures and help "others of your kind". Once within we attacked the trolls by surprise and moved quickly to take the guard tower, opening the gates to allow the remnants of the De'Arnise guards and hastily assembled militia to storm the inner keep.
As battle raged for control of the keep, our company headed straight for the dungeons, where a terrified servant we rescued said that Lord De'Arnise had been taken. Along the way Nalia took us to her family chapel, which also doubled as a secret crypt where the family's greatest treasures were hidden, including an ancient relic called the Flail of Ages, which would prove a powerful weapon against the trolls, and wielded to great effect by Anomen.
Past throngs of trolls and their Yuan-ti allies, we found the leader of the attack force, a monstrous troll calling itself Torgal, at his feet was the lifeless body of Lord De'Arnise. There was to be no parley with such a creature, no offer of surrender and no mercy. We attacked with sword, flail and spell. I surprised myself at how far my sword mastery has progressed since I started applying theory into practice beyond the safety of Candlekeep. Augmenting my physical training with arcane protection and enhancement, I have become tenfold the warrior I was when I faced Sarevok. Whilst our companions dealt with Torgal's entourage, Anomen and I hacked and smashed the beast to its knees. Nalia finished it off, avenging her father with an Acid Face into the monster's face.
The De'Arnise Keep had been retaken, but we had come too late to save the majority of its inhabitants, including Nalia's father. Though she had promised a handsome reward for our services, we readied to leave without it, as it would be insensitive to bring up the subject given the circumstances. Instead however, Nalia made an offer none of us expected.
She explained that her father had been in conflict with a rival noble, Lord Roenall, who coveted their land, and Nalia had barely escaped having to marry his son, a most nasty individual if her accounts are to be believed. With her father dead and no male heirs to inherit his land, the De'Arnise Keep and all its land and property would pass onto the Roenalls due to her previous betrothal to Isaea Roenall. Thanks to a quirk of Amnian law however, Nalia could appoint a fighting man, me in this case, as a de-facto lord of the keep and prevent the Roenall takeover.
My first thought was that it would be absurd for an outsider to be accepted as an Amnian noble, and suggested Anomen instead, but apparently his vows to the Order prevents his inheritance of noble titles. Yoshimo, aside from also being an outsider, has an unsavory reputation within Athkatla that would cause more problems than a complete unknown like me. So, given that the rest of our company are women, the "honour" landed on me by default.
Becoming an Amnian lord may seem fortuitous at first, but it makes little difference in practice. I have little knowledge of Amnian politics, and promised to leave the governance of the land to Nalia and her advisors. My lack of noble heritage, and indeed any Amnian heritage, meant that my de-facto title offers little influence to help me rescue Imoen from the Cowled Wizards, and the devastation of the troll attack depleted whatever financial resources the De'Arnise family possessed, and I could hardly demand gold from Nalia when her people faced starvation in the months to come.
Our efforts to help Nalia was not entirely in vain however, in addition to making a potentially powerful friend, Nalia allowed Anomen to keep the Flail of Ages, as payment for our services.
Location: De'Arnise Keep
Obviously I used the dream thing to explain the odd game mechanic that suddenly Jin's Kensai skills all re-activated after he reached lv10 Mage.
I actually ctrl+y'd all the golems in the secret crypt. I could have killed them at this stage (and got the xp that would yield) with Jin's powers back, but I always felt it makes more sense if Nalia could disable golems designed to protect her family.
And yes... although Jin got his Kensai powers back, I still couldn't say goodbye to Jaheira just yet. It's coming though
Why the magic rule of six, Bioware!?
Upon our return to Athkatla, I was pleased to find Neera waiting for us at the Copper Coronet, just as she promised. Unfortunately however, as one friend returned, one of my earliest companions, nay my only remaining guardian figure, left...
It was no secret that Jaheira had visited the Harper base in Athkatla on a number of occasions, seeking information and assistance regarding Imoen and Irenicus. What I did not know was that a schism had emerged within the group, and that they had been debating about how to "deal with" me and Aluando's prophecy. Some within the Harpers believe that I pose a grave threat to Faerun and must be eliminated to thwart the realisation of the prophecy. Others, Jaheira among them of course, believe that it would be wrong to persecute somebody guilty of no crime other than their heritage, and pointed to my good intentions and noble actions in and around Baldur's Gate, and more recently, Trademeet.
Unfortunately, it appears that the argument of pre-emptive strike won out in the end, and the Harpers, or at least the Athkatla branch of them, has become my enemy. Before she left, Jaheira left a note explaining that Harper magic allowed them to detect each other's presence, so her company would increase the risk that I'd be caught. She also admittedly that she could not bear harming her colleagues, most of whom are good people following bad orders, and hoped that I'd avoid using lethal force if I had to defend myself against them. Working from within, she hoped to misdirect the Harpers off my trail and give me the opportunity to continue my quest unmolested by yet more enemies.
Bereft of our leader and guide, we sought the favour of the Temple of Helm and ventured into the sewers to assist Sir Keldorn Firecam, a respected paladin of the Order of the Radiant Heart, and Anomen's superior in the Order. He had made several expeditions into the sewers already, but could not find the secret base from which the Cult of the Unseeing Eye spreads its poisonous ideology. Two days of crawling through the filthy tunnels yielded little clues regarding the cult, though we did happen upon the lair of a vicious gang that used the sewers as a hideout from the law. We offered them the opportunity to surrender, but were forced to slay them in self-defense in a surprisingly tough battle. Having learnt of the crimes that these hardened brigands are responsible for, I have no regrets for their demise.
Deeper in the tunnels we were ambushed by a group of Kobold, led by a Rakshasa, who they appeared to worship as a god. Thankfully this particular Rakshasa was nowhere near as powerful as Ithafeer and her kin, and we slew the creature with relative ease, scattering his cowardly minions.
Exhausted, we returned to the Copper Coronet for much needed rest. With Harpers on our tail, we really shouldn't stay at any one tavern for any extended length of time, but I feel somewhat safer here due to our relationship with Hendak, who I trust not to give me up to the first person to offer a bag of gold. Besides, with our clothes stinking of the sewers these days, I doubt many other taverns would let us in the front door!
I best get some shut-eye, need to get up nice and early for yet more sewer crawling!
Location: Athkatla, Copper Coronet
Yes I have finally picked up Keldorn, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that he started with 800k xp! Because of how long I waited until picking him up, I was worried that Keldorn would fall significantly behind the rest of the party in terms of experience. As it happens 800k puts him well ahead of everyone else in the party, which is fitting because he is supposed to be a hardened veteran, and ought to be much more experienced than the likes of Anomen and Aerie. It's almost like I planned it!
The departure of Jaheira was something that I planned. The loss of all his guardian figures (combined with his recent recovery of Kensai skills) allows him to finally step out from under their protective wing and assume a leadership position in the party.
Just before Jaheira left she demonstrated her prowess one last time in the "Battle of the Temple Sewer". Due to my "no-prebuffing" rules, this encounter has always caused me problems in the past, and is partly why I have been scared to attempt to get Keldorn earlier. On this occasion however, Insect Plague wrecked enemy spellcasters and made the result more or less a formality.
After picking up Keldorn, I initially planned to do Neera's Hidden Refuge quests. My metagame reasoning being "well now I got an inquisitor, lets' take on some mages!". Unfortunately there ended up being way more mages in that Red Wizard compound than I expected, as well as a small army of elite mercenaries! Taking the compound by force was clearly beyond the capability of my company at this point, and although I know that there is a less direct approach to the quest, I personally felt that it was too "unrealistic", so I shall simply return to that quest line when the party is much better equipped to deal with it. The two reloads it took to reach that conclusion does however get added to the tally...
Reload 2: Red Wizard Compound
I underestimated the strength of resistance in the front-room of the compound, and things went horribly wrong shortly after I lost half the party (including Jin) to Chaos.
Reload 3:Red Wizard Compound
I was stunned by the sheer number of guards and Red Wizards in the bar area, and thought that it was pretty unrealistic that they didn't notice the carnage in the front-room, so I attacked without summoning or using short term prebuffs. Despite doing well to take out the trio of mages in the centre of the room, more guards and mages poured in from adjoining rooms, and things went south very quickly. I had especially underestimated the mercenaries, who hit like a tonne of bricks. One of them smacked Yoshi for 40+ dmg and another hit Neera for 57(!?) chunking her instantly from full health, which would have been grounds for a reload even before Jin went down shortly afterwards...
... I guess Beamdog were worried that veterans might find the new content too easy.
I like your style of putting Jin's journal entries in italics, with the OOC explanations in regular print. As always, I enjoy the way you wrap your story around the game events and mechanics.
I've never done any of Beamdog's additions yet, so it was interesting to see you have the same reaction that a lot of the early players had, that the new battles are quite hard, perhaps even too much so for the level at which they logically should occur. I hope it doesn't force you to alter your plans to use Neera throughout the game. Do you have to win that battle to get her back into the party?
Also, I was wondering if that Nahal's Reckless Dweomer teleportation actually happened in your defeat against Ithafeer, or was that just creative storytelling?
I have always interpreted what happens in the game fairly loosely rather than worry about everything on a literal basis. So...
1) Neera leaving the party before the De'Arnise Keep was just part of my standard rotation policy, to make way for Nalia, I did it in my first playthrough as well, if you remember. I think I rotated Anomen on that occasion and said that he was recovering from injuries or something.
2) Neera's quest line comes in several stages. The first stage is easy and is the only thing you need to do to recruit her. The second stage is where I hit the brick wall, but Neera does not complain if you delay it until much later.
3) The wild surge teleport was just my creative explanation for how my party managed to escape from that dire situation. (Where in fact it's because the AI allows your entire group to withdraw as a whole when one of them reaches the door, and in this case, the Rakshasa do not even pursue you outside.) A Wild Mage is rather convenient for plot purposes.
It has been but two days since I last wrote, but you would not believe how far away I have traveled and the sights I have seen!
It all started in the Temple Sewers. In our search for the secret headquarters of the deviant cult calling itself the Unseeing Eye, Yoshimo spotted a hidden tunnel that led to what turned out to be a wizard's lair. The wizard in question was a rogue mage by the name of Mekrath, who made his home in the sewers to avoid the attentions of the Cowled Wizards. Although Mekrath had an unsavory reputation, we were about to excuse our intrusion when we noticed his servant in the corner of the room. He had a totally blank expression on his face, and moved around with a certain awkwardness, almost golem-like.
When we confronted Mekrath about this, he claimed that the servant was a thief he had caught and decided to punish by being turned into a thrall. Clearly this was an abhorrent excess, even if the individual was a thief, but when we demanded Mekrath to free the man, the arrogant mage attacked without hesitation. Perhaps he had intended to attack us anyway, given that we had discovered his hidden lair. In any case, he badly underestimated our company, and Keldorn in particular, whose ability to Dispel Magic stripped him of his arcane protections, allowing Anomen and I and strike him down with ease.
The demise of Mekrath broke his enchantment upon his victim, who upon regaining his senses, introduced himself as Haer'Dalis, an actor from a travelling troupe based in the Five Flagons Inn. What he did not tell us was that he and his troupe had traveled from far farther than Calimshaan, or indeed Faerun! When we escorted Haer'Dalis, still a little confused from his ordeal, to the Five Flagons, his grateful companions revealed that they were planar travelers hailing from a world called Vigil! With Haer'Dalis returned to them, they could finally move on from their overlong stay upon the "Prime Material Plane"- their name for our world.
Opening the planar portal they required to travel between the planes ripped a tear into the fabric of reality, and with that came the risk of dangerous extra-planar creatures escaping into our world until the portal was stabilised. Naturally, we agreed to help them defend the portal whilst their leader, Raelis Shai, worked to do so. The first few creatures to emerge were simple mephits and imps, which posed no serious danger to us, however, that all changed when a squadron of heavily armed warriors suddenly appeared.
Haer'Dalis and his companions had one more secret they had not shared with us. They were wanted fugitives, escaping the law in Vigil, where they had apparently offended a powerful noble with a provocative play. As a result they were being hunted across the planes by planes-travelling bounty hunters(!), who had somehow redirected their portal from their intended destination to a Planar Prison! Unfortunately, given that we in the present company of Haer'Dalis and his companions, we were also drawn into the portal, which closed behind us as we landed in a strange new world.
I say "world", but it was really just a bizarre prison within a small pocket plane, and home to a Cambion that was its master and warden. Because our arrival was not anticipated, we were not teleported directly into holding cells along with Haer'Dalis and his friends, but we did land right next to the bounty hunters that tracked them down. After a moment of hesitation on both sides, a frantic battle broke out, in which thanks to the speed of Neera's spellcasting, we were able to seize the upper hand and vanquish our attackers.
What followed was a desperate attempt to escape the Planar Prison as its guards reacted to our intrusion. Unfortunately, many of those "guards" were in fact fellow victims trapped in the prison, and compelled to do its master's bidding by means of a control collar. We had no choice but to kill scores of thralls in self-defense, until we found the Master of Thralls, a Tanar'ri demon and lieutenant of the Warden. A mighty Tanar'ri demon was once a terror to behold, and though this particular fiend was not as powerful as Aec'Letec, I surprised myself and my companions with the ease with which I cut him down with Heaven Reliant, whilst his attacks were easily avoided or repelled with my arcane protections and natural agility. Such power is welcome given my circumstances, but it worries me also, especially given what happened next...
With the Master of Thralls slain, his control collars ceased to function. The prison suddenly erupted into chaos as recently freed thralls fought desperately to escape the only way possible- by slaying the Warden. The battle was ferocious and bloody in the extreme, and by the time we arrived, the majority of the Warden's guards and their former captives were already dead. The Warden himself had apparently been hexed by an escaped mage, and what would surely have been a terrible foe was easily dispatched by the blade. At the moment of our victory however, disaster struck.
A stray spell, cast by prisoners or guards, I do not know, caught me just as I slew the Warden. Suddenly the world spun around me, and I felt weightless, as if teleporting. When I recovered my senses, I was back in the Temple of Bhaal in the Undercity beneath Baldur's Gate. Before me stood Sarevo, Irenicus, and an entourage of henchmen! At their feet was the mutilated bodies of Khalid, Gorion and Imoen. When they saw me, Sarevok laughed, and Irenicus merely looked upon me with the same cold, dead, eyes. Grief and anger overcame me, I waited for no explanation, no perverse reasoning, and rushed my enemies with lethal intent. I decapitated the first henchmen I reached in one swift attack, and moved onto Sarevok, who blocked and parried as best as he could, but he could not match my new-found speed and power, and I struck him down in mere heartbeats. Irenicus put up more determined resistance, but I quickly overpowered him too, and raised Heaven Reliant to deliver a lethal strike.
Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my head, I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again, I was standing over Anomen, the tip of Heaven Reliant at his throat. At his side Keldorn lay motionless, lying in a pool of blood, his blood. A poor gnome whose name I did know, a clearly a prisoner here given his garb, lay headless nearby. Aerie, Neera and Yoshimo looked on aghast, Yoshimo with his bow notched and drawn upon me. I had been hit by confusion-inducing magic, not unlike those Neera loved to use against our enemies, and in my confusion I had gone on a rampage, lashing out at all those around me, nearly killing both Anomen and Keldorn as they threw themselves between me and the others.
After the shock of the incident passed, and both Anomen and Keldorn healed with no lasting damage, they expressed understanding and sympathy, and said that I was not to blame for their injuries, or the death of the stranger we did not even know. I do wonder if Anomen truly meant it, or whether he was merely obeying Keldorn, a superior in the Order. Truth be told, I am scared, I came so near to killing my companions... if Anomen had fallen, there is no doubt the others would not have survived my furious assault. I have seen the effects of Chaos on numerous occasions upon our enemies, and even experienced it myself before, but never have I seen a victim erupt into such wanton rage and violence. It is as if without my consciousness controlling my body, the monster within, the essence of murder, was free to reign havoc unchecked. I dread to think of the consequences if I ever lose control again and hurt somebody I love and care about.
With the Warden slain and his remaining guards overcome by the surviving prisoners, we found Haer'Dalis and Raelis Shai, who were thankfully unharmed. The warden's magic had been dissipated, allowing Raelis Shai to open a portal back to the Prime plane and escape the harrowing planar prison.
After our latest adventure, it feels rather odd to be back in a place as mundane and ordinary as a tavern in Faerun. Though given my experiences of planar travel thus far, I would not mind being forever grounded on "Prime Material Plane", one world is big enough for me!
Location: Athkatla, Copper Coronet
I decided to ignore any connection between Quayle and Raelis, it just seemed unnecessary plot-wise, as I stumble into the Planar Prison quite naturally whilst picking up Keldorn and dealing with the Unseeing Eye (which I always dread, another reason why I delayed getting Keldorn).
The prison was significantly easier than in my previous experiences, mostly because I had learnt to use Robe of Vecna (recently purchased after the De'Arnise Keep) to launch a very rapid Greater Mallison + Web combo (by Neera and Aerie) to deal with the bounty hunters. The near-disaster I described at the end was pretty accurate. I got complacent because the Warden was confused when I arrived, presumably due to a bad saving throw against a prisoner's spell, so he was easily dealt with before he could deal serious pain with nastiness like Horrid Wilting (which would one-shot Aerie and Neera). However I forgot about his entourage, and somehow Keldorn got stunned, and a hasted Jin got "Chaos'd". This was a very bad combination as Keldorn was unable to dispel the confusion, and became a sitting duck for Jin, who had also recently picked up Boots of Speed so he moved like a bullet and shredded whatever he attacked in moments.
I was seriously worried that Jin would chunk Keldorn, as attempts to stop him with Hold Person, Dispel, Charm (Jin had the Ring of Human Influence too!), Command etc... failed. Thankfully Jin only killed Keldorn and badly mauled Anomen before wandering off and leaving the party alone. Unfortunately poor Tagget was not so lucky and was the first to get chunked in Jin's frenzy. I was relieved to not lose any reputation for Tagget's death, though I might have missed out on some experience points. (Don't know about this since I did get xp from Raelish Shai).
I had always known that the Boots of Speed was in the Planar Prison, but I had forgotten all the other treasures there, including Kundane, Staff of Air, Adjatha the Drinker and Gauntlets of Weapon Skill. So that turned out to be a much more rewarding prison break than I expected.
State of the Party
With everything that has happened recently, it feels surreal, wrong even, to write about anything other than my quest to save Imoen and deliver justice upon Irenicus. I feel guilty as if I have allowed myself to be distracted from my mission... but I cannot deny a whole part of my life, I cannot pretend that it's not happening. Not writing about it is simply lying to myself. So here goes... I am falling in love again!
No I am not talking about Neera, though it has certainly been nice to have her back, and also discover a more responsible and caring side to her personality. But no, I am talking about Aerie...
I was drawn to Aerie the moment the cruel illusion Kalah cast upon her was broken. Her flowing golden hair, gentle features and big blue eyes... captivated me. Given my lessons with Neera, where I created an idealised version of her in my mind, without opening my eyes to really see the girl in front of me, I was careful to avoid the same mistakes with Aerie, and indeed resisted getting close to her at first.
But I could not help it. I could not help but lend an ear and a shoulder when she became upset, homesick or scared, and in time she grew to trust me with more of her sorrowful past and the legacy of pain it has left her. My heart aches for the suffering and injustice she has endured, and reminds me time and again of the evil that plagues our world. Sometimes I want nothing more than to hold Aerie in my arms and shelter her from all the unpleasantness and evil in the world, but it seems my destiny demands that I must venture from one danger to the next, no matter how much I try to avoid the taint of my divine heritage.
I occasionally wonder if I am being selfish in encouraging Aerie to find strength within herself to overcome her doubts and the burdens of her past. Am I doing the right thing to help her, or am I simply scared to lose her? Indeed before Jaheira left, she had voiced considerable doubt regarding Aerie's suitability for a life of adventure and danger, and we did decline Nalia's offer to join us because of her naivety and inexperience... No, aside from her own insistence to continue upon our shared path, Aerie does possess great courage and inner strength, the evidence of which I see more and more the longer I have known her. I believe that she has what it takes to cast aside the shadow of her lost wings and make her mark upon the world, hopefully with me by her side.
I am convinced that I am not merely entranced by beauty and fallen in love with an illusion of my creation. I can see the light of compassion and hope within her, beneath her seemingly fragile exterior, there is a burning passion to help those who cannot help themselves, to combat injustice and to right wrongs. For someone to possess such innocence and goodness, despite all the injustice and suffering they have been subjected to, is precious beyond description. She is a beacon of light in a world of so much darkness...
Aerie knows how I feel about her, I couldn't bottle it up any longer after the trials we overcame at the De'Arnise Keep and confessed on the road back to Athkatla. She said that she understood little of the love I described, and although she did care about me, she needed more time to make sense of her feelings. I guess it is not quite the answer I was hoping for, but she has not left my company, and we grow closer day by day. For somebody as special as Aerie, I will wait for as long as she needs.
Location: Athkatla, Copper Coronent
Sometime around the De'Arnise Keep and the Planar Prison, I had got through the content for the Aerie romance. However, I decided against regular updates on Jin's love life, which seems out of place given the life-and-death events and momentous achievements that take place at the same time. That said, I know from personal experience how much of your head can get taken up by a romantic infatuation, even with other important stuff going on, so it'd be odd if Jin completely ignored that aspect of his life, hence the above.
Oh yeah, I always felt that the pace of the BG2 romances were way too fast. So my canon-Jin is gonna have to work a lot harder to win Aerie over compared to game-Jin.
Having recuperated from our ordeal in the Planar Prison, we resumed our investigation into the Cult of Unseeing Eye. Given our failure to discover the hidden base we knew to be somewhere in beneath the sewers, we decided to find the cult the only way anyone seems to have been able to- by joining it. Pretending to be swayed by the fiery sermon of Gaal, we mingled with a crowd of converts and followed him into the sewers. As expected, he led us to a hidden door that we had missed, perhaps protected by magic, which revealed an ancient tunnel complex that extended far beneath the city.
The size and sophistication of the cult went far beyond what we had expected. Instead of a band of desperate fanatics, we found a well-organised secret society, complete with hundreds of soldiers, administrators and cultists. What made the spectacle all the more disturbing was the fact that everyone in the cult was blind, with their eyes cut out as part of the initiation ceremony, and yet they could still see, as Gaal promised.
As the newest recruits were led to an altar besides a giant pit for the initiation ceremony, I feared that we'd have to break cover and try to fight our way out from the heart of cultist complex, to avoid having our eyes cut out. However, a potentially desperate breakout was avoided when Gaal recognised Keldorn and Anomen, and demanded an explanation for the presence of two distinguished knights of the Order of the Radiant Heart among his converts. Just when it seemed battle would be unavoidable, Gaal offered an alternative. We were to prove our faith by retrieving an artifact from a lost temple in service to their god, in return for the opportunity to be honoured with an audience with "the living god".
Of course we jumped at the opportunity to avoid a bloodbath and getting to the truth of the cult, though it did trouble us that we being sent on an errand so dangerous that not even their "god" could do it alone. As it happened, there was a reason for that. The artifact the cult sought was an ancient weapon called a Rift Device, so devastatingly powerful that it was hidden by the gods of ages past in a secret temple of Amaunator far underground and protected by deadly traps and ageless wards that were impenetrable to creatures of darkness, including Beholders. The Unseeing Eye, we would come to learn, was in fact a particularly ancient and powerful member of the most vile and evil of races.
The creature had likely formed the cult specifically to use its members to retrieve the artifact, for what nefarious purpose, we shall never know. It likely knew of our deceit and saw past our flimsy disguise as converts, but hoped to use our capabilities to obtain the Rift Device where his other followers had failed. What the monster did not know was that an avatar of the long-dead Sun God remained within his forgotten temple, and once we were able to summon him, he warned us of the Unseeing Eye's nature and intention. In exchange for our promise to return the Rift Device, its powers much dimished by the passage of a millennium, the avatar permitted us to borrow the weapon for one final purpose, to destroy the Unseeing Eye.
Reaching the monster to deploy the device was no easy task. Within his inner sanctum we faced his most fanatical human clerics, as well as lessers of his kin, each whom were deadly monsters in their own right. Both Aerie and Neera required urgent healing after being hit by the lethal barrage of Harm spells the Beholders unleashed.
Somehow, with our escape cut off, we persevered and pressed onwards, and found the Unseeing Eye in the heart of his lair, an enormous Beholder, far larger and more vile than any we had faced before. It seemed amused at our presence, though it is difficult to gauge the expression of a floating eyeball monster. We did not wait for a villain's exposition in the face of such a powerful and terrible foe. I unleashed the power of the Rift Device immediately, a column of purifying flame erupted from the rod and engulfed the Beholder, incinerating it in a hideous death scream.
With their "god" vanquished and their "vision" removed, chaos and panic erupted among the cultists above, allowing us to easily sneak out of the lair in the confusion, and quickly return with a coalition of soldiers from the Temple of Helm and the Order. Some of the cultists resisted arrest at the cost of their lives, some managed to flee into the darkness, but the majority were apprehended to be held accountable for any crimes they may have committed in servitude to the Unseeing Eye.
High Watcher Oisig thanked us for our efforts in eliminating the deviant cult, and although he was unable to secure Imoen's release from his contacts among the Cowled Wizards, he was able to get us a meeting with a high-up among them, a man by the name of Tolgerias, I believe. It is start I suppose, and I dearly hope it will lead us to Imoen soon.
Location: Athkatla, Copper Coronet
The only item I disallow from my playthroughs is the Shield of Balduran, because it renders an entire class of very dangerous enemies entirely trivial. As a result, Beholders have always inspired dread in me, and my latest foray against them reminded me exactly why.
I had hoped that with the Boots of Speed and Jin's impressive damage output, he could rush in and slice n' dice em so fast that I could "out-dps" them. That led to...
Reload No. 4: Gauth in the Rift Area
I hate Gauth even more than full Beholders. Not only do they normally come in dangerous packs, whereas Beholders usually come in ones and twos, they use Cause Serious Harm like a machine gun! Ironically the variety of nastiness full Beholders unleash (such as Remove Magic, Flesh to Stone etc) reduces their sheer dps output compared to Gauth. (At least this is my observation). At this point in the game, a single Gauth can kill Aerie or Neera in a split second with 2 unerringly accurate blasts, and Jin was crippled before he even reached the trio to swing a sword, and died shortly afterwards. The following screencap is actually from the subsequent successful effort, when I decided to go back to the tried and trusted Greater Mallison+Web combo. Even then Gauth have surprisingly good saves and dealt plenty of damage as I traded fire with ranged weapons, using Anomen as a spell-shield, thanks to his good health pool, Armour of Faith and Belt of Inertia Barrier, which helped to mitigate damage quite significantly.
In terms of loot, the most significant item obtain via this questline was the Gauntlets of Dexterity, which makes Anomen quite an effective tank. I also used the gold earnt to buy Aerie the Bracers of Defense AC 3, which helps to keep her alive when her Stoneskins run out.
State of the Party
It has been a tenday since I last wrote. Much has happened, as always, but my objective remains elusive and Imoen remains a captive of the Cowled Wizards. I am running out of patience rapidly... But let me start from the beginning.
Our first meeting with Tolgerias was tense, but cordial. Though I was sorely tempted to put a sword to his throat and demand the release of Imoen, Keldorn and Aerie urged restraint and we gave diplomacy a chance. Tolgerias revealed much of what we already knew. He confirmed that Imoen was apprehended by the Cowled Wizards following the "disturbance" in Waukeen's Promenade, and subsequently transferred to their "Asylum for the Magically Deviant", more commonly known as Spellhold, a name we have heard whispered here and there in our investigations to date.
Tolgerias insisted that he did not have direct access to Imoen, or even Spellhold, as the Cowled Wizards divided their spheres of responsibility along distinct geographic and professional boundaries, so the Athkatla branch of the organisation has limited influence with those that run the secret prison known as Spellhold. However, he promised to "look into the matter" and wield his influence in our favour if we were to help him apprehend a wanted fugitive responsible for the murder of two Cowled Wizards. The man's name was Valygar.
To cut a long story short, our hunt for Valygar took us deep into the Umar Hills. Our latest expedition outside of Athkatla gave Neera another opportunity to make an individual visit to her Hidden Refuge, seeing as we did not expect to need her arcane abilities to deal with just one man. As it turned out, Neera ended up kicking herself for missing out on the magical adventure that was about to unfold... or perhaps not, given what happened.
When we found Valygar in his hidden cabin high in hills, he did not appear to be the sort of violent psychopath Tolgerias had described, and given the chance, calmly explained his side of the story, which turned out to be quite enlightening... He explained that he was the last living descendant of an infamous necromancer called Lavok, who terrorised the Sword Coast hundreds of years ago, before disappearing in a giant spherical construct believed capable of planar travel! A few months ago, the Planar Sphere reappeared inside Athkatla, and ever since, the Cowled Wizards have been trying to gain access to it.
The Cowled Wizards tracked down Valygar because they believe his blood holds the key to unlocking the sphere. However, Valygar is convinced that his infamous ancestor, Lavok, is likely still alive, and does not trust the intentions of the Cowled Wizards with the power that the Planar Sphere might possess. For good reason, given what we have seen of their behaviour. It is for that reason that he resisted arrest, leading to the death of two Cowled Enforcers in self-defense. Valygar candidly warned us that he would not be willingly taken alive to Tolgerias, though he did offer an intriguing alternative to prevent bloodshed... He would accompany us into the Sphere and slay Lavok, if he still lives, and give us the whatever treasures the necromancer possessed, in return for our assistance.
Valygar's story left us with a decision to make, though despite my desperation to be reunited with Imoen, there was only one decision we could make, and indeed only one decision a noble paladin like Keldorn would accept. We accepted Valygar's offer and traveled back to Athkatla with him in our company, but not to hand him over to the Cowled Wizards.
As suspected, Valygar was able to unlock the Planar Sphere with but a drop of his blood, allowing us to step into the most wonderous, if deadly, contraption. I had expected an interior about the size of the hold of a large ship, but incredibly, the Planar Sphere was much larger on the inside than it looked from the outside! What magic or technology allowed such a marvel, I do not know, and we did not have much time to appreciate it before we found ourselves in mortal peril.
The moment I touched a door leading deeper into the sphere, the whole structure hummed with energy, the room seemed to spin, and when it settled, to my horror looking through an observation deck, we were no longer in Faerun! Once more, we had become unwitting planar travelers, and this time, instead of a planar prison, we found ourselves on an abyssal plane of demon-infested nightmares! Thankfully, the sphere appeared to be impervious to forced entry from the outside, but we were stranded very far from home.
Unable to escape by leaving sphere, we proceeded the only way possible- further into it. The sphere was almost like a collection of mini-planes, with each new chamber or cavern revealing a new environment, with different life forms, some of which were exceedingly dangerous, like psychotic Haflings who seemed to be cannibals and shark-men I vaguely recall reading about in Candlekeep. It was almost as if Lavok was collecting specimens of races and cultures he had come across in his travels.
Ultimately we found Lavok himself deep within the sphere, apparently surprised by our ability to reach him. In desperation, he attacked, despite being outnumbered six to one, but his magic, powerful though it was, was easily dispelled by Keldorn, allowing Valygar and I to quickly subdue the necromancer. Just as Valygar was about to finish off his ancestor, Lavok, mortally wounded, pleaded for respite. He explained that he had been possessed by an evil spirit, and in fact was trying to prevent the monster from being unleashed upon the Prime Material Plane in all the months the Sphere sat inert within Athkatla. In defeating him, Lavok had been freed centuries of possession, and only with his cooperation, could we return home.
Both Valygar and I, our blades never leaving Lavok's neck, were sure that the necromancer was lying to save his skin, but incredibly, both Keldorn and Anomen determined his words to be truthful. With our guarded trust, Lavok explained that in order to return home, we must recharge the Planar Sphere with a new power source- the fresh heart of a Tanar'ri demon!
With no other option available, we unlocked the Planar Sphere from within and ventured into the blasted landscape beyond. It was a landscape of nightmare made flesh, where the ground itself, if it can be called that, pulsed with dark life, rivers of a black gooey liquid flowed in channels like veins within a gargantuan monstrosity. The sky was blood red, though lit by no obvious sun or stars, and a menacing mist descended, limiting our visibility to mere yards.
Though I did not voice my fear with my companions at the time, I felt certain that we would perish in that hellish place. Somehow though, we survived, not one, not two, but three Tanar'ri attacks! The first demon we encountered rashly attacked us head on, and quickly fell to our combined efforts of sword and sorcerery. Unfortunately the creature's heart was badly damaged in the battle, and thus unsuitable for our purpose. Pressing deeper into the mists, we encountered nothing but small packs of lesser beasts for what felt like hours, until the landscape opened up into a plain of sorts, eerily quiet and unnaturally cold. We had stumbled into the realm of a powerful Lea'Liyl demon, an elite among the Tanar'ri...
Flanked by its minions including Salamanders, Imps and Maurezhi, the monster attacked from the mists. Escape was out of the question, for it had deliberately lured us deep into its lair. Heavily outnumbered and assailed by such monsters, it seemed that our fate was sealed. However, even in the abyss, the favour of Helm was with us as Anomen called upon divine power to Smite the demons all around us. In a brilliant flash of light, the Lea'Liyl was blinded by Helm's cleansing power, allowing Keldorn to wade into the magical Webs created by Aerie and behead the monstrosity. With their overlord slain, its underlings scattered into the darkness.
After cutting out the Lea'Liyl's black heart, we hurried back towards the Planar Sphere, but this was easier said than done. Reality itself is warped in the magic of the abyss, and we spent hours stumbling through the mists, only to find ourselves returning to the same spot, all the while, packs of lesser demons stalked us from the shadows. We would have been trapped in the Lea'Liyl's accursed realm were it not for Keldorn's True Sight, which finally guided us through the darkness and deception. Before we could make our escape however, we were assailed by yet another Tanar'ri demon, possibly a lieutenant of the Lea'Liyl we slew. Already exhausted by our trials, we barely had the strength left to overcome the creature, hurriedly fled to the Sphere as yet more monstrosities closed in for the kill, emboldened by their growing numbers.
Back in the sphere, we rushed to the engine room in the heart of the Planar Sphere, with the demon heart still warm within Keldorn's now bloodied pack. Before we got there, there was another twist in the tale... Tolgerias and his apprentice had secretly followed us onto the sphere! Whilst we were gone, he had finished off Lavok, though not before forcing the necromancer to set the sphere ready for the return trip to Athkatla. With the demon heart required to power the journey, he no longer had a need for us either, and attacked with little hesitation and murderous intent.
A terrible Horrid Wilting spell nearly spelled disaster for our company, but thankfully most of us were able to avoid the full extent of the attack by dodging into side tunnels. When the cloud settled, we counterattacked. Once more an enemy mage had underestimated the prowess of Sir Keldorn Firecam, whose True Sight rendered his illusions useless, and Dispel Magic stripped Tolgerias, a powerful mage for sure, of all his arcane protections, allowing Anomen and I to strike him down with ease with sword and flail.
Thankfully, with the demon heart in place, despite Lavok's demise, we were able to pilot the sphere safely back to its original position in the slums of Athkatla, ending our latest, and hopefully last, venture beyond the Prime Material Plane.
Valygar had promised us whatever treasures the Planar Sphere contained in return for our assistance, and sure enough there were a few artifacts of note, including a set of enchanted gauntlets that vastly increased Keldorn's strength and a Staff of Fire that Neera absolutely loved. In the end however, Valygar went even further, and offered me ownership of the Planar Sphere itself! As the last living Corthala, he was able to reprogram the sphere to recognise me as its master.
The brave ranger had demonstrated remarkable courage and skill in our ordeal in the abyss, and we invited him to join our company, but Valygar declined, saying that he had seen enough demons and mad mages to last a lifetime, and preferred to return to a simpler life in the wilderness. It is understandable for sure, and perhaps for the best, given some of Valygar's opinions regarding dangerous magic, and Neera's sensitivity about the subject!
Back on solid ground, we have hit a dead end in my mission to rescue Imoen. The Cowled Wizards are proving more treacherous and ruthless than we ever imagined, and I sorely fear for Imoen's welfare at their mercy. I don't see what other options we have... I don't think Keldorn and Aerie will like what I am going to suggest, but I don't see what else we can do. I cannot allow Imoen to rot in Spellhold any longer!
Athkatla: Planar Sphere
Wow that ended up being quite a wall of text! I got a bit carried away... The Planar Sphere is my favourite side quest in BG2, if you couldn't tell already.
Given that I went a bit later than I did in my first blind through, and my party-setup is significantly stronger, it was not as challenging as the first time around, and the battle against the Lea'Liyl was a bit anti-climatic as Anomen blinded him straight away. That said, the first Tanar'ri was actually quite a pain because I underestimated it and was conserving spells.
Oh I should mention that around this stage is also when I started to do more non-canon things. That's to say there's things I want to do in this playthrough because I missed them in my first playthrough, but I cannot justify them roleplaying-wise, or might not want to unnecessarily complicated the plot, cos "too much stuff happens" in Baldur's Gate (and RPGs in general) for a concise and compelling story. These are mostly just minor things, so I will do them quickly inbetween major quests, but won't consider them "canon" to my story.
First major example of that is the day of the two liches! Yes Jin and co. decided to kill two liches in one day. The one in the Old Tunnels leading to the Rift Device (Unseeing Eye quest) was surprisingly easy to kill, though I suppose I might have got lucky in killing it quickly. The one in the tavern in the Bridge District proved a bit trickier, as my no-prebuff rules left my party vulnerable to his nasty AoE spells in a confined space, and he also managed to summon a Pit Fiend to add to the fun. Non-the-less, liches are squishy once their protections are breached, and he went down fairly soon afterwards. I didn't pick up Daystar, which is one of the two items (Celestial Fury being the other) replaced in my game due to Jin's custom sword.
State of the Party
I think you're one of the best posters of these kinds of run journals. You know how to find the perfect balance of detail to "getting to the point", that is, you cover the game events and flesh them out with just the right amount of story and detail to keep the reader interested without getting bogged down in minutae.
I'm also surprised by how much I like how you have split story and OOC explanation of what is actually happening in-game. I don't think I've seen any other journaler do that before, and I am finding it interesting and refreshing how much easier a game journal is to read when the story and the writer commentary are separated out from each other as yours are, than when they are all mixed together in the usual style.
It has been almost two weeks since my last update, in that time I have fought many battles and won a moral victory of sorts against the Cowled Wizards. However, my actions were not without consequence, and the cost of my hollow victory has been high, far too high...
The actions of Tolgerias further confirmed the unjust and tyrannical practices of the Cowled Wizards, and our conflict with him over the Planar Sphere snuffed out any hope we had of negotiating with them for Imoen's release. Unwilling to accept this injustice any longer, I proposed a radical plan of action to my companions... We would wage war against the corrupt organisation!
We had come far and made remarkable progress as a team since Jaheira, Yoshimo and I struggled out of the horrors beneath Waukeen's Promenade, on the day that Imoen was taken. Together with new companions, I have traveled the planes, acquired powerful weapons and artifacts and defeated mighty demons and mages alike. With the Planar Sphere to use as an impenetrable base of operations, I felt that we were strong enough to strike back at the power of the Cowled Wizards in Athkalta, and force them to give up Imoen through intimidation, where diplomacy had failed.
I was worried about the reaction of my companions when I explained my proposal, particularly Keldorn, whose views regarding Law and Order can be rather rigid. Thankfully, they were more sympathetic and receptive to my views than I feared, and had come to a similar conclusion regarding the Cowled Wizards, though Keldorn did insist that he and Anomen must seek sanction from the Order before they could participate in such politically dangerous activity.
So, whilst Keldorn spent days in discussion with senior members of the Order, trying to seek their support, or at least sanction, for military action against the Cowled Wizards, The rest of us spent our time trying to formulate a strategy for the battles to come, and win allies to our cause by helping the Amnian guards and the Order deal with a number of teething problems in the Bridge District. These included a group of rogue paladins expelled from the Order, who had turned to slave-smuggling and banditry, a child murder who had fled the Flaming Fists from Baldur's Gate and a particularly revolting serial killer who had a habit of skinning his victims. Whilst we brought the former-paladins and the child-killer to justice, the "Skinner" evaded capture following a difficult battle in his heavily trapped lair, and we could find no clues regarding where he might have fled to.
Finally, after five days of discussion and debate, the Order of the Radiant Heart had come to a decision. Despite our good deeds in and around the city, the Order were unwilling to commit openly to military action against the Cowled Wizards. However, they agreed that the wizards had overstepped all reasonable boundaries on their authority, and agreed to allow Anomen and Keldorn to assist us in our efforts against them. We were not entirely without new allies, because on her latest trip to the Wild Mage Hidden Refuge, Neera returned with a trio of her friends, Larz, Nara and Knoctor. Knocktor in particular would provide us with a decisive advantage in our war against the Cowls. The remarkable gnome was the inventor of the ingenious Hearthfire Amulet that allowed Neera to rescue so many Wild Mages from under the noses of the Red Wizards and the Cowls, and now, Knocktor would give us a weapon to negate the Cowled ones' greatest advantage- their overwhelming numbers in the heart of their powerbase within Athkatla.
Even the mighty Irenicus had to submit to defeat when faced when an escalating response from Cowled Enforcers that would have exhausted and overcome him eventually. To avoid a similar fate for us, Knocktor concocted a contraption he called the Arcane Beacon, which could be placed around the city and timed to release a small and harmless discharge of arcane energy, triggering a Cowled Enforcer response. By having beacons triggering at the same time in multiple occasions, we could force the Cowled Wizards to spread their forces thinly, and ambush them piecemeal. Such was their arrogance that their response had become entirely predictable and exploitable.
And so it began, operating from the safety of Planar Sphere, we launched our guerrilla war against the Cowled Wizards. Our initial attacks were a complete success, catching our enemy by surprise and destroying squadrons of enforcers before overwhelming reinforcements could arrive, thanks to distractions provided by Knocktor's beacons. Unfortunately, although we always tried to leave one enforcer alive to interrogate, they invariably refused to give up the location of Spellhold, or claimed that they did not know. To make matters worse, my war quickly spiraled out of control.
Ten days ago, a beacon misfired prematurely as Nara and Larz were placing them around the city, and the Cowled Enforcers reacted with ruthless efficiency, killing them before they could escape. We found their scorched bodies burnt beyond recognition dumped near the Sphere, in a thinly veiled threat for the rest of us. Four days ago, in a battle near the city gates, Neera had wild surge, and despite all the precautions we took, a massive fireball engulfed a squad of guards who had rushed to investigate the disturbance. All but one of them were killed instantly, and the survivor fled to spread word of our "reckless and dangerous" behaviour.
The tragic accident and the deaths of Nara and Larz shook our conviction significantly. To add salt to injury, all sorts of crazy rumours began to circulate regarding our actions, including a "wild mage invasion", "Baldur's Gate conspiracy" and "demonic swordsman"... Deaths, disappearances and destruction that gone on for weeks in the shadowy guild war between Shadow Thieves and an apparent challenger, which had nothing to do with us, were now being blamed on our actions! Almost overnight, our reputation plummeted from courageous heroes who had saved Trademeet, smashed slavers and apprehended some of the worst criminals in the city, to unstable psychopaths and terrorists seeking to bring ruin to Amn! Even the Order and the Temple of Helm, with whom we shared good relations, were forced to publicly renounce any and all connections to our company.
We had come too far to give up, but on our latest attack last night, we were dealt another grievous blow. After all the losses we had inflicted upon them, the Cowled Wizards had finally adapted and modified their response. They no longer reacted to every single beacon we triggered, but attacked in greater force in response to the beacons they did investigate. That led to the titanic battle last night, where a company of the most elite among the Cowled Wizards fell upon us. The leader among them, Zallanora possessed incredible power, including mastery of legendary spells like Time Stop. In the blink of an eye, she stripped us of our magical protections, stunned Anomen and then removed him from the battlefield with the most cruel Imprisonment spell. What followed was a desperate battle of wills as Keldorn and Zallanora fought to remove and maintain her arcane protections, whilst the rest of us battled against her companions. In the end, we emerged triumphant, but only barely, and at a grave cost.
Imprisonment is a cruel fate worse than death. Anomen has been trapped in suspended animation far beneath the earth. He is aware, but utterly helpless to free himself, or even move. In such a state, he cannot even die and will be trapped for eternity unless the spell is reversed. Unfortunately, the magic to reverse Imprisonment is as rare as it is to cast it, and far beyond what Aerie, Neera or myself are capable of. We spent all day running to every arcane merchant and mystic peddler we could find in the city, but none could offer a solution.
Our defeat of Zallanora and her elite enforcers appears to have broken the back of the Cowled Wizards within Athkatla. They no longer respond to beacons or the open use of arcane magic, or at least they no longer respond quickly and recklessly. However, for all the bloodshed and loss, not one of them have offered to release Imoen, or tell us the location of Spellhold. I am no closer to my goal and though I do not voice my fear, I dread to think what they may do to Imoen in retribution for our actions. Have I only doomed her in my efforts to save her? What now?
I don't know.
Location: Planar Sphere, Athkatla
Clearly, now I am really taking liberties with my interpretation of events in the game. I am always uncomfortable with game mechanics that allow your party to accomplish unrealistic things, like wipe out a city or defeat an entire army. In this case, I thought that it was unrealistic that the Cowled Wizards always respond in such a predictable and limited level, rather than a constant escalating reaction as depicted in the Battle of Waukeen's Promenade. Hence my "arcane beacon" plot device.
The time that Keldorn was away from the party to hold discussions with the Order was actually the day I gave him to spend with his wife and family in his personal quest. I took the time to do a number of minor side quests as described without him. I also spread out the Cowled Wizard battles over quite a length of time so that I could do both the Mage and Fighter Stronghold quests in that period. In my first playthrough, I missed most of the De'Arnise Keep quests because my limited rest rules meant that I got through the game in a relatively short period of ingame time, and I wanted to experience both strongholds in this game (I installed a mod component to enable this).
Although I am imagining that the stuff happening at the keep is being dealt with by Nalia, and clearly I cannot be working with Cowled Wizards in the Planar Sphere when I am waging war against them at the same time, I wanted my non-canon actions to have consequences too. Hence Larz and Nara became wild mages recruited by Neera for the war effort.
Speaking of consequences... I tried to minimize the chance of collateral damage by fighting every battle at night in the Gate District, where there is normally only a single guardsman around, and I can localize the battle away from him. Unfortunately, despite Chaos Shield, Neera had an inopportune wild surge that killed that single guardsman instantly, resulting in a -10 penalty to reputation. I don't ever buy reputation from temples, so I will have to live with the consequences of my choices for the forseeable future. (I had literally just done a bunch of +1 reputation quests and had been on 20 for quite a while).
Finally the Battle Royale with the last group of Cowled Wizards... It had been relatively plain sailing thus far, wild surge aside. And then Zallanora and co. came out of nowhere and walloped me good! (I have never got so far with Cowled Wizard battles before)
First Attempt:
Reload Number 5: Zallanora and co.
This was quite a difficulty spike. Zallanora time-stopped, Imprisoned Anomen and proceeded to nuke my party with nastiness. Despite having Keldorn, I really struggled to bring down her defenses, and keep them down.
Second Attempt:
Reload Number 6: Zallanora and co.
This time, she went straight for the jugular and Imprisoned Jin... insta-reload.
Third attempt:
I resorted to cheese (by my personal standards), and trapped the battlefield. I think Yoshi got lucky and successfully planted 3/3 special traps and 1/3 normal trap. I certainly got lucky when those traps pretty much crippled the Cowled Wizards as soon as they arrived. Zallanora was dead before she cast a single spell.
This felt rather cheap and unsatisfying to me, as an extremely difficult battle was rendered completely harmless by good luck and metagame knowledge that told me to hit Zallanora with everything I had before her protections popped up. Hence...
Fourth (and canon) Attempt:
Zallanora once more Imprisoned Anomen (after the 2nd attempt I kept Jin back to throw spells and MMMs to avoid that risk), but I think she got Chaos'd or Fear'd and temporarily removed from the thick of the battle until most of her companions had been dealt with. Taking her down still took quite an effort and got rather messy...
... But I emerged victorious and accepted this version of events as canon. When I did so I did not know that there were no Freedom Scrolls pre-Underdark! But I decided to refrain from a fifth attempt and just accept the consequences.
The (somewhat temporary) loss of Anomen was unexpected and quite a big blow to the party. Although the Flail of Ages gets automatically transferred to Charname, Anomen was carrying some of the best equipment I had. I cheated in a Freedom Scroll and freed him temporarily to take a screencap of his equipment, encase it gets bugged after I return from the Underdark.
The biggest losses are the Gauntlets of Dexterity, which Keldorn could really do with if Anomen can't use it, and the Belt of Inertia Barrier, which was my plan to deal with Beholders. Of course Anomen was quite the boss in battle, so the character himself is the biggest loss of all, which leads to...
State of the Party