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Who in their right mind...?

TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
So you wander through Athkatla and stumble into a derelict house. The door was rigged with a nefarious trap that drained your life force a bit, so you will have to go to a temple later to get that fixed. Odd that there would be such a nasty trap on the door to a house that only had a few minotaurs squatting in it (not sure where they came from). A brief search of the house reveals nothing of real interest, so you head to the basement. Suddenly you feel very uneasy as you appear to be in an ancient tomb with monolithic statues on each side. There is an aura of unease and the unnatural that seeps into your body and disturbs you to your very core. There is a giant sarcophagus in the middle of the room and the closer you get to it the more uncomfortable you feel. You open it.

As you open the sarcophagus your senses are assaulted by that horrible feeling and a golden skull starts talking to you and promising rewards beyond imagining if you help it find the rest of its body. You say no and the skull curses you out and mentions something about a coming reign of terror.

Later in your adventures you stumble upon two other tombs that are similar to the one with the golden skull. You are curious as to if these also have golden skulls in them so you open them as well. Opening both of these other tombs seemed to release some manner of lich guardian. They both spoke in tones that were both indignant an somewhat frightened. They spoke dire warnings about some "Kangaxx" that they did not want to get free. Before you could get a straight answer from them they both decided it would be better just to kill you. You survived the battles against these two liches by the skin of your teeth, only just barely defeating them.

You open the tombs again and see parts of a golden skeleton and when you reach out to touch the pieces you become overwhelmed with a horrifying sense of evil and pain. So you wrap the pieces in cloth so you can bring the pieces with you without touching them. Then, for whatever reason, you return to the golden skull and it politely asks you to change your mind about helping it. You have all the missing pieces of its skeleton so you figure "What the hell? Nothing bad could possibly happen." and put the skeleton back together.



So my question is this: Is Charname the dumbest person in existence or what? So many things wrong and so many warning signs... I don't even know where to start! How do you RPers ever justify doing this quest without RPing an insane or intensely stupid person?
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Comments

  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
    If your party is strong enough, have survived through the Spellhold, have beaten many creatures in the Underdark, I perfectly can see that this party would like to try what this Kangaxx is all about.

    The Bhaalspawn, feeling a Slayer inside, can be ready to test herself against this Kangaxx. If it would be non-aggressive, alright, if it would be agressive, well, "we've killed more scary foes already".
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    It's no so much RPing as just being prepared to abandon the stereotypical superhero character mindset.

    That said, this specific situation is quite obviously ridiculous as no one in RL would go through the lengthy and obviously insanely dangerous process of say........developing an atomic bomb.
  • MortiannaMortianna Member Posts: 1,356
    Archaos said:

    Who in their right mind would go adventuring?

    That's why the PC's story is so interesting. Becoming an adventurer wasn't a choice, it was a necessity.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    Well if there is a being this powerful they are a threat to the city and likely have powerful items at hand. So I could see characters of a high enough level being interested in fighting kangaxx.
  • MhamzaMhamza Member Posts: 228
    edited March 2015
    RP wise, post-Spellhold, the Slayer might detect Kangaxx's presence and subconsciously influence the PC to do his quest, perhaps out of a desire to fight such a powerful opponent and force the PC into transforming when Kangaxx turns out to be too strong.
    Post edited by Mhamza on
  • Lord_TansheronLord_Tansheron Member Posts: 4,212
    Doesn't even have to be the actual Slayer, could just be the Bhaal-blood calling, subconsciously driving CHARNAME to taking a bit too many risks, or being more susceptible to actions that perhaps are not the most wise.
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    edited March 2015
    When in full-on RP mode doing a journaled "Fates" style run, in which I play minimal reload (PC death only), I regularly avoid fights. For example, in the BG1 game I have going I avoided the 5th floor battle at the Iron Throne after the party first sleuthed the floor while invisible and determined the threat that was awaiting them, and then having a party member use invisibility again to search for and steal the needed item. This is actually meta-RPing because the item in question is required by the plot to move forward.

    But if I'm just playing for the sake of enjoying the combat mechanics, then I don't care about any of that and meta-game my butt off.

    But for Kangaax, given that it is a side-quest, it does depend on the main character's motivations. Obviously if it is an Undead Hunter then the character will have a clear one. Otherwise it is up to the player's imagination what might have them continue--or decide not to risk reconstituting such a powerful dark force.
  • JoshBGJoshBG Member Posts: 91
    edited March 2015
    My characters usually have 9 Wisdom. And usually they are "do first, think later" type of persons.

    Hmm, I wonder where this comes from... :D
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    I still don't see any justification to release Kangaxx for a good character. Someone before has obviously gone to a great deal of trouble to render him imprisoned and helpless. His body has been divided and sealed in different places, with guardians and strong warnings put in place.

    If you find his skull first, ignoring the warnings not to open the sarcophagus, this supposedly mighty being is reduced to literally begging you for help. He is quite clearly harmless in his present state.

    I agree with the OP. Only an insane person, good or evil, would proceed to free him. An evil person might want to control his power, but there is no indication that such can be done.

    People just wanted to free him to see what would happen. He became one of those bonus side-boss challenges people like. Those who figure it out get rewarded with a nifty magic item that now everybody wants.

    I never fight him though, because I think it requires breaking character to do so, and I like to stay in character when I play BG2.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
    @Tresset How have you managed to miss that? http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/38861/orc-hordes-of-the-kings-forest-recap-thread#latest

    They do not only play D&D in the office, they play it nearly every week!;) Also, they've played PoE in the office as well.

    Indeed sounds like a fantasy:)
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I'm a writer as well and I have no problem with my characters doing insane and stupid things. Mostly I just like to pick apart and analyze the system, not play through the story. A lot of us aren't roleplayers in the first place, at least not in BG2.

    It makes it easier when you don't read any of the dialog anymore.
  • skinnydragonskinnydragon Member Posts: 110
    Charname could be concerned that if he can free kangaxx so could someone less scrupulous which could cause real problems. By this point he has met two villains who seem to have no limits and could possibly have released kangaxx so he might see this as the safest option. Although it may have been better to hide or destroy the body parts
  • hisplshispls Member Posts: 166
    edited March 2015
    Metalloman said:

    What if CHARNAME simply wants to (and I'm willingly put this in an easy way, as it is just a brief reflection):

    If good - kill that thing to free the world from such an evil being;

    if neutral - kill that thing because if free could broke balance;

    if evil - kill that thing for power.


    Assuming that CHARNAME relies really much on their abilities and they're sure to come out victorious. :)

    Agreed 100%. Furthermore you KNOW the S will HTF when you reassemble him, that's why you've laid traps all over the place, have a hoard of summons, and have all your buffs up before you put the pieces together.

    If you are going to RP as if you actually believe his promises you'd better hope you're a big dumb oaf berserker who flies into a fit of rage immediately after realizing he has been lied to.
  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    Yeah, you help Kangaxx because you either -hope to kill the evil once and for all or -hope for a reward or ally by helping the evil guy. Unless wisdom and intelligence are waaay below 8, I don't think any pc would fall for that. Even Minsc wouldn't be foolish enough to help Kangaxx, Boo would smell out his evil a mile away.
  • JarrakulJarrakul Member Posts: 2,029
    The world is full of crazy people. I mean, random lone bandits attack fully armed parties of six. Gorion's Ward might be one of them, or might just be aware that sooner or later, one of those crazy people is gonna let this guy out. Sealed evils *never* stay sealed forever, after all. Now, Gorion's Ward also has good reason to think of themselves as unusually competent. If the evil's gonna get out eventually, it makes a lot of sense for a powerful individual to let it out in controlled circumstances and kill it for good. In the big picture, the worst thing that happens is Kangaxx gets out a bit sooner than he otherwise would.
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  • cognoscentuscognoscentus Member Posts: 65
    Two words:

    Phat lootz :wink:
  • NatenNaten Member Posts: 138
    Well if you have Valygar with you, I would imagine that any undead that can still talk is not good enough for him. I argue that we might be biting off more than what we can chew. He stares at me for a moment, turns away and says "If we cannot kill this thing, whatever it may be, then what hope do we have of defeating the powerful mage who took Imoen.."
  • kcwisekcwise Member Posts: 2,287
    That Valygar is such a manipulative bastard!
  • jesterdesujesterdesu Member Posts: 373
    It seems to me like a fairly reasonable thing to do if you know you can win the fight. End evil, get loot etc.

    Besides for all his bragging, Kangaxx goes down pretty easy to anyone with some well enchanted weapons and a couple of protection from undead scrolls... I doubt he'd get far in Amn if he did escape.
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,410
    I could imagine a good character being both selfless and cocky; deciding "someone could get hurt, but I can end this."

    But normally I just skip Kangaxx.
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