Trademeet stuff
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
Hah! Those misguided Harper's picked the wrong Bhaalspawn to mess with! MyChar: 2, Harper's: 0. Will there be a round 3? Anyway, we got Jaheira back.
Finally we manage to head off to Trademeet, where I found out several things.
1) Nalia is only a level 4 thief but .... if you give her the gloves of pickpocketing and a potion of master thievery, her ability score goes up to 95. Oh dear; I hope I can resist the temptation to go on a crime spree! She put up an improved invisibility just as a precaution, and practiced a bit; she even managed to steal from one of the Djinn. Bad Nalia!
2) In the middle of town, I ran into my old friend Rasaad the monk, whom I met long ago in Beregost; I ignored him then, since low level monks are pathetic. He started droning on about some internal conflict involving different monk sects, but I cut him short this time around also. No more side quests until this other stuff is resolved!
3) I went into the local pub; I had inside information that the traitor Hayes was there. The instant I entered the door, some guy started babbling about me being a Bhaalspawn and went into panic mode. Despite my best efforts to calm him down, he suddenly was struck by a lightning bolt from above and exploded! Oddly enough, none of the other patrons even commented on this bizarre occurrence. Anyone have a clue what that nonsense was all about? I'm totally mystified.
4) Hayes was indeed there; he's turned into a pathetic alcoholic. I didn't even bother killing him, and not even Neera objected to letting him live.
5) Onward to bag a Rakshasa head! Hmm, I probably should buy as many potions as possible before whacking the old biddy. I suspect killing it will cause its stock of potions fall on the floor and break, or explode or something. (If I were the designer of that scenario, I wouldn't want 100 or so potions dropping as loot).
Finally we manage to head off to Trademeet, where I found out several things.
1) Nalia is only a level 4 thief but .... if you give her the gloves of pickpocketing and a potion of master thievery, her ability score goes up to 95. Oh dear; I hope I can resist the temptation to go on a crime spree! She put up an improved invisibility just as a precaution, and practiced a bit; she even managed to steal from one of the Djinn. Bad Nalia!
2) In the middle of town, I ran into my old friend Rasaad the monk, whom I met long ago in Beregost; I ignored him then, since low level monks are pathetic. He started droning on about some internal conflict involving different monk sects, but I cut him short this time around also. No more side quests until this other stuff is resolved!
3) I went into the local pub; I had inside information that the traitor Hayes was there. The instant I entered the door, some guy started babbling about me being a Bhaalspawn and went into panic mode. Despite my best efforts to calm him down, he suddenly was struck by a lightning bolt from above and exploded! Oddly enough, none of the other patrons even commented on this bizarre occurrence. Anyone have a clue what that nonsense was all about? I'm totally mystified.
4) Hayes was indeed there; he's turned into a pathetic alcoholic. I didn't even bother killing him, and not even Neera objected to letting him live.
5) Onward to bag a Rakshasa head! Hmm, I probably should buy as many potions as possible before whacking the old biddy. I suspect killing it will cause its stock of potions fall on the floor and break, or explode or something. (If I were the designer of that scenario, I wouldn't want 100 or so potions dropping as loot).
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And, as I suspected, there was nary a potion to be found once they were dead. There wasn't even a plausible explanation given, like the potions shattering or exploding. They just ... weren't there anymore. Pretty lame; I was expecting to at least get a screen shot of potion bottles breaking or something.
And the reward from the Djinn? A plain old +2 scimitar? How cheesy! Despite the fancy name, it doesn't seem to have any special powers. Belm is a lot better. Well, OK, the Heros of Trademeet thing is pretty cool, and makes the effort worth while. Still, his stingyness gets rid of any guilt feelings I had about ripping off that bottle from him. Oh wait, Bhaalspawn don't get guilt feelings!
Could you please be a little more cryptic in future comments? We don't want to reveal too much!
[spoiler=You don't learn more about him until...] ...you finish The Shadows of Amn campaign and get to the Throne of Bhaal campaign. [/spoiler]
THAT'S what you call a spoiler? By Helm! You must be afraid to post anything of real portent at all! You would probably consider 90% of the stuff I am posting as "spoilers"!
And I still want to know where the Rakshasa potion cache disappeared to.
If it's terribly important to have the complete exact quotes, I'll go back and see if I have a save near that part.
Adratha: "Ahhh, if it is not a handsome half-orc come to see an old woman in the woods, yes? Perhaps you have come, like so many others, to partake of my potions, yes?"
Kheldorn: "Wait! There ... there is more here than it seems. There is dire evil ... dire evil all around! And especially from the old woman!"
Adratha: "What?! You do not have the stench of the djinn on you! How do you know this?! Bah!"
However, this is not a real merchant, she's a pseudo merchant. A monster disguised by an illusion. Monsters can well drop treasure when you kill them.
OK, I went back and got the exact dialogue. Now it's your turn. Why were Keldorn's exact words of particular import?
Also if you have agreed to help Dao, the woman will get angry and say you smell of the genie and reveal herself to attack. Otherwise you would have no idea without those 3 npcs in your party.
Fascinating, really. I wonder if a day will come when there is nothing new to learn about this game.
Well, it certainly is huge. I have been trying to limit the number of quests I have pending but they still keep sneaking in. Now I have two more from Trademeet. I really want to get my evil type dudes together to get Korgan and Viconia and Hexxat's quests out of the way, but I just don't get a chance!
There are even little side mini-enounters going on in Trademeet. Keldorn picks up on other stuff besides the Rakshasa, btw; he intervened in a fight between two philosophers there in Trademeet.
Anyone else encounter that little scenario? Two philosophers are arguing and one gets a hired goon to attack his debate opponent. Keldorn says something like "I will not tolerate such injustice!" (not a direct quote) and promptly begins attacking the thug. I had to pause the game to take stock of what the heck was going on. I mean, if Keldorn goes all Dirty Harry on somebody, I need to look into it.
Despite Keldorn beating him over the head, the goon managed to kill his mark and then tried to run, at which point all of my crew piled in; Jaheira hit him with that nasty druid spell that slows you down even if you make your saving throw, and the rest of us joined in with magic missiles and weapons. We did manage to take him out, but the philosopher who hired him was able to make a clean escape amid all the confusion.
Not a lot of experience to be gained (we got 480 for killing the thug), but interesting.
Heh, thanks. This thing makes me sort of schizophrenic. On one hand, I'm sitting there analyzing stuff like spells, battle tactics and what have you, and on the other I'm trying to imagine how MyChar would react.
Which is usually pretty straightforward, actually. Psychologically speaking, half-orc Bhaalspoawn aren't very complicated. He's fairly laid back and tries to be helpful, but if you cheese him off, the usual result generally leaves messy red stains all over your carpet.
The other has not one but two feuding families (a Hatfield vs McCoy type of thing, apparently) each wanting me to retrieve some doohicky from a tomb. Now, MyChar is not a total idiot; he's been through this sort of thing before (Aha! You fool! You have retrieved the Mace of Ultimate Devastation for me, and now YOU will be the first to die! Muahahahahaha!).
Basically, I know how these scenarios play out; been there, done that. Whichever side you decide to work for, the other one will try to screw you over, and that's assuming your actual employer doesn't try and stab you in the back first. I figured "screw 'em both, I'll grab the item for myself". Umm, I cant get into the tomb without a key, and guess who has the keys? I went to the mayor's office, figuring maybe he'd have something to say about it, but both he and his aide were mum. Well, OK, at the banquet where they initially approached us, he did shake his head and do a "tsk, tsk" sort of thing, but he hasn't been helpful after that.
I'll defer this one for now and do the "simpler" task first.
In fact, the city guards seem pretty somnolent all around; maybe they drink on duty. They seemed quite disinterested when my crew was engaging the latest Harper assassins in an all out battle up and down a major thoroughfare. One of the reasons I let Hayes live was that I didn't want to get into it with the local constabulary (I still have nasty flashbacks about being chased through the streets of Baldur's Gate by the damned Flaming Fist enforcers).
He's still sitting in the pub quaffing ales. Considering the total disinterest that the local cops show, maybe I'll take him out anyway, even though Neera's quest line seems to be over. Being on an endless bender doesn't seem to be enough punishment, somehow.
Actually, my memory for details isn't the best. I would totally have not recognized the name. Keldorn did, however, and immediately started frothing at the mouth and ranting about bringing the criminal to just retribution. I agree, this bad boy deserves whatever we do to him. If we poured honey on him and staked him out over an anthill, he'd be getting off easy.
"Bad boys, bad boys, what ya gonna do?
What ya gonna do when Keldorn comes for you?"
Yeah, I know. I initially turned them down, figuring I'd do a solo end run, grab the dingus, cut out the middleman and proclaim myself King of Trademeet. Doesn't work that way. Oh well, have to pick one of them then. Hmmm, that "doesn't matter" part seems just a wee bit ominous. Not that I'm the suspicious type, or anything
Really, give me some credit also. I spend some time reading the forums, and I see people posting about how they can get through a re-run in X amount of hours. I can well imagine someone who missed it the first time, and is trying to set some sort of speed record for the next run-through, missing it again.
Perhaps, to avoid offending those with delicate sensibilities, I should have rephrased the question to "Has anyone NOT encountered that scenario?". Is that better?
Yes, sure, some people are speed-runners who can finish the game in astonishingly short times ... but obviously they must be skipping huge amounts of content to achieve that. Presumably they enjoy what they're doing, but it doesn't appeal to me at all. A complete run through all the content naturally takes a great deal longer.