Keeping Khalid Company (Spoilers)
procco
Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 915
Hi, folks. This will be a continuation of the adventures of Pollie, half-elven mage/thief. You can find the first chapters of her story here:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/39574/keeping-gorion-company-spoilers/p1
For this run of BG2EE (including ToB) I'll be playing minimal reload (only reloading if Pollie dies, or if I'm just monkeying around/experimenting and things go south) with resurrection available only for Imoen (see part one for the reason). And core rules, except for the occasional scribing of rare scrolls. I reserve the right to change the rules at any time, if I start running out of NPC's too quickly
. I'm not going to try to document every bit of the game in any sort of detail, just the highlights...
Ok, so here we go.
Pollie, fresh from her post-Sarevok-defeating escapades, awakes to find herself caged in an unfamiliar place. At least Imoen's familiar face is here to greet her. after exchanging pleasantries, they discover that Jaheira and Minsc are also caged up in the same chamber. Quite a surprise, seeing as only a couple of months ago they were lying dead in a field not far from Candlekeep. Strange.
After a bit of taunting, Minsc breaks free from his cage, and a little poking around turns up the key for Jaheira's cage. The gang is (partially) back together again! Minsc tells Pollie of the death of Dynaheir. Ollie os doubly surprised at this news, seeing as the last she knew, Danaher was also lying in that field.
Well, nothing to do but to see about finding a way out of this place. It sure is creepy with all the half-dead people in oversized jars, and whoever owns it needs to find a new exterminator. Goblins are everywhere. Nasty little critters.
They make their way through the first level, offering help to a genie in a bottle (getting a sweet staff in exchange), and agreeing to lug around a bunch of acorns for some dryads (they could have at least offered a small sack to carry their nuts in. those acorns keep falling on the floor tripping up Minsc, and little Boo keeps trying to nibble at them. But a promise is a promise).
Moving on to the second level, they are greeted by a fine young gentleman name Yoshimo. He has a funny way of speaking, but seems like a pretty trustworthy guy. Plus, a little extra help is always welcome. The mysteries of this dungeon are made deeper by an encounter with a clone with a bad attitude.
While passing through one chamber, Jaheira finds the body of her husband, Khalid. He seems to have been recently killed (again, very surprising. Yep, he too was left dead in a field months ago). Pollie makes the executive decision that leaving his body there in the dungeon is just wrong. So onto Minsc's back he goes, and off the party goes.
(Side note: it took me a minute to figure out how to actually bring Khalid along with he party, but I wound up exporting Khalid from BG1 to a character file, and then importing him into a MP game in BG2, then immediately killed him. Originally I wanted to actually make Minsc lug his body around, but was unable to find an item file for his body. I could have used Anomen's body, but it wouldn't have been the same, and I was afraid of glitches with Anomen meeting his own dead body later on).
The group make their way out of the dungeon without any real difficulty. Emerging into the daylight, they find themselves in the middle of a battle between some thieves and a Mage of obvious power. Imoen loses her $#!% and unloads some magic missiles at the mage. The air around them crackles and they are surrounded by a group of grey robe wearing wizards. The head honcho wizard says something about unsanctioned magic, blah blah blah. Irenicus finally throws his hands up in disgust and let's the Wizards take him, but only if the also take Imoen as well. Real nice, jerk. The two are ensorcelled off to who knows where, and this is where the party find themselves. Standing in a heap of rubble in a strange city,no friends, hardly any money, and man could they use a beer right about now. But at least the weather is fantastic!
First things first, though, they need to find a good place to drop this rotting corpse Minsc is lugging around on his back...
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/39574/keeping-gorion-company-spoilers/p1
For this run of BG2EE (including ToB) I'll be playing minimal reload (only reloading if Pollie dies, or if I'm just monkeying around/experimenting and things go south) with resurrection available only for Imoen (see part one for the reason). And core rules, except for the occasional scribing of rare scrolls. I reserve the right to change the rules at any time, if I start running out of NPC's too quickly
. I'm not going to try to document every bit of the game in any sort of detail, just the highlights...Ok, so here we go.
Pollie, fresh from her post-Sarevok-defeating escapades, awakes to find herself caged in an unfamiliar place. At least Imoen's familiar face is here to greet her. after exchanging pleasantries, they discover that Jaheira and Minsc are also caged up in the same chamber. Quite a surprise, seeing as only a couple of months ago they were lying dead in a field not far from Candlekeep. Strange.
After a bit of taunting, Minsc breaks free from his cage, and a little poking around turns up the key for Jaheira's cage. The gang is (partially) back together again! Minsc tells Pollie of the death of Dynaheir. Ollie os doubly surprised at this news, seeing as the last she knew, Danaher was also lying in that field.
Well, nothing to do but to see about finding a way out of this place. It sure is creepy with all the half-dead people in oversized jars, and whoever owns it needs to find a new exterminator. Goblins are everywhere. Nasty little critters.
They make their way through the first level, offering help to a genie in a bottle (getting a sweet staff in exchange), and agreeing to lug around a bunch of acorns for some dryads (they could have at least offered a small sack to carry their nuts in. those acorns keep falling on the floor tripping up Minsc, and little Boo keeps trying to nibble at them. But a promise is a promise).
Moving on to the second level, they are greeted by a fine young gentleman name Yoshimo. He has a funny way of speaking, but seems like a pretty trustworthy guy. Plus, a little extra help is always welcome. The mysteries of this dungeon are made deeper by an encounter with a clone with a bad attitude.
While passing through one chamber, Jaheira finds the body of her husband, Khalid. He seems to have been recently killed (again, very surprising. Yep, he too was left dead in a field months ago). Pollie makes the executive decision that leaving his body there in the dungeon is just wrong. So onto Minsc's back he goes, and off the party goes.
(Side note: it took me a minute to figure out how to actually bring Khalid along with he party, but I wound up exporting Khalid from BG1 to a character file, and then importing him into a MP game in BG2, then immediately killed him. Originally I wanted to actually make Minsc lug his body around, but was unable to find an item file for his body. I could have used Anomen's body, but it wouldn't have been the same, and I was afraid of glitches with Anomen meeting his own dead body later on).
The group make their way out of the dungeon without any real difficulty. Emerging into the daylight, they find themselves in the middle of a battle between some thieves and a Mage of obvious power. Imoen loses her $#!% and unloads some magic missiles at the mage. The air around them crackles and they are surrounded by a group of grey robe wearing wizards. The head honcho wizard says something about unsanctioned magic, blah blah blah. Irenicus finally throws his hands up in disgust and let's the Wizards take him, but only if the also take Imoen as well. Real nice, jerk. The two are ensorcelled off to who knows where, and this is where the party find themselves. Standing in a heap of rubble in a strange city,no friends, hardly any money, and man could they use a beer right about now. But at least the weather is fantastic!
First things first, though, they need to find a good place to drop this rotting corpse Minsc is lugging around on his back...
5
Comments
Damn. I spend too much time with kobolds.
"Ooooh, a circus! Let's go there." A guard tries to warn them that something is amiss inside the big top, but Pollie assures him she can take care of herself. She's not so sure about the others with her, but she personally has got it covered. They step inside.
"Uh-oh. Methinks this is no ordinary circus...how'd they ever fit this palace inside a circus tent, and a somewhat shbby one at that?"
Using her spectacular intellect, Pollie answers a devious riddle to gain entrance to the palace. Inside, they are greeted by an ogre with a girl's voice. After freeing the ogre, she transforms into a young winged elf with no wings. Well, he may as well tag along. The extra help can always come in handy.
Proceeding through the rest of the palace, they are confronted by the dastardly Kallah, who quickly falls to a volley of magic missiles. Having knocked him out, his illusions are dispelled and they find themselves inside a normal, if somewhat small, circus tent, a little bit richer, a little bit wiser, and a lot disappointed in this lousy circus.
Heading back out into the streets, Pollie can't help but think there is something she's forgetting to do. She notices poor little Boo has put a clothes pin on his nose and she remembers they still need to figure out what to do about Khalid. Seeing as he's a bit of a hayseed, she decides the best place for him will be somewhere out of the city, possibly a field or nice little grove of trees. So out of the city they go.
Passing through the slums on their way out of town, they are greeted by a ruffian who claims to know of one one who can help them find Imoen. Seems a little suspicious, but what harm could there be in following him? Back at his shack, he tells them the Shadow Thieves of Athkatla can help them, but it's going to cost them 20,000gp. That sounds a bit steep but they have no other leads at this point. Aw crap. That Irenicus guy stole Pollie's purse that had at least 50,000gp. Guess they'll need to find some work and adventures.
Leaving the rogue's home, they at last head out into the wilderness and eventually come upon a keep with the symbol of Helm all over it. It's a bit gaudy, but the woods around it are pleasant enough. Minsc unceremoniously drops Khalid on the ground, they have Jaheira say a few words that nobody really listens much to, then head back to town.
And yet I'm snickering behind my monitor. Hahahahahahahaha!
It's a strange feeling.
All that aside, I really am looking forward to your next post for this, and lost a couple hours of my day yesterday reading "Company for Gorion" as well. I really like your sense of humor and how you somehow balance a party of sometimes opposing alignments with your need of meatshields-- err, company. Yes, [i]company[/i]. The non-lethal kind. <.<
Walking into the inn, she is accosted from all sides. Some perv tries to bed her, and she decides to mess with him. He gets nervous and leaves. Another guy starts pushing her buttons, until she finally looses her patience and fights him in the battle ring. Things almost did not end well for Pollie. The guy hit hard and often. Going toe to toe with him was not doing her any good (although the group of bloodthirsty onlookers that had gathered found it pretty entertaining) and she had to switch up tactics. She drew her experience with the flesh golems back on the sword coast and chugged an oil of speed (nasty tasting stuff...somewhere in between spunky beer and spoiled milk) then darted around the ring taking pot shots with her short bow. Eventually he succumbed, the crowd exchanged money with one another, and Pollie had an ale.
Mingling with the other patrons, Pollie got a couple of leads on some money making opportunities. A young girl named Nalia asked for help with some unnamed creatures invading her home. Pollie agreed, but wanted to keep her options open. Nalia went on ahead, and Pollie agreed to "hurry" and "not waste any time" getting there to help her.
Another ale, to help loosen up before talking to more of the locals.
A man who's name name Pollie couldn't pronounce ("Firecrack?" ""No, Firkraag" "That's what I said." "No, it's not." "Yuh-huh." "Nuh-uh." Etc.) told her of some pother beasts that were invading his land, too. "Fine, we'll help you, too, but we've some other stuff to take care of first." "No worries, get to it when you can. The monsters are being very patient with their pillaging and plundering. And it's Firkraag." "That's what I said. Jerk."
On the way out of the bar, they ran into a sickly young girl who was muttering something about a treasure. That sounded promising. Joining up with the lass, it turned out the treasure was hidden in a tomb in the graveyard district of town. Of course it was. And I'll bet there's going to be a bunch of undead critters guarding it too. So cliche. Ok. Fine. Treasure. Let's go check out this tomb.
At the graveyard, they find themselves in the middle of an argument between a man and his dead uncle. The uncle wound up dead. Again. To make up for this less than noble act, Pollie sets up an orphan with a paladin foster parent. I guess she should have done a background check on him first. Can't trust anyone these days.
Finally, into the tomb of the ominously named Dragomir. Oh, but first they are attacked by some shadow thieves...literally. The thieves were undead, and shadows. But now they are even more dead. Inside the tomb, more shadows or shades or whatever. Pollie finds them much less satisfying to destroy than a good old fashioned zombie or some such. Nothing like zombie chunks flying all over to let you feel like you've put in a good day at the office. Or a skeleton. The sound the animated bones make when they collapse in a dusty pile keeps you coming back for more. But a shade? Nah, they just make some creepy noise and puff off like a soap bubble popping. The party makes their way to the end of the tomb, where the girl informs Pollie she needs to crawl into some casket in order to reach the treasure. Pollie looks at the girl, sighs, shakes her head, and crawls into the casket without a word. She pops out on the other side of a wall where a spectral figure awaits her. Using her now famous skills of repartee, she convinces the figure to fork over the key to Dragomir's crypt...then kills him for good measure.
So, Dragomir was no slouch, and Pollie died at least two or three times, but finally he was taken down with no casualties. They grabbed his cloak and returned to the other end of the tomb to at last claim the treasure. The "treasure" turned out to be a vampire who killes the girl (whose name it turns out is Clara) and tells us to meet her at the Copper Coronet in a couple of hours. Pollie sighs, she shakes her head, and the party make their way back into the daylight. Off to the bar for an ale while waiting for Hexxat the vampire to show up. Pollie can't even believe she is going to meet with a vampire on purpose, but something intrigues her about the whole situation. And they need the treasure!
At the Copper Coronet, Hexxat is nowhere to be found, so they saddle up to the bar and get their drink on. They are approached by a clean cut fellow who introduces himself as Anomen. "An omen of what, I wonder," Jaheira wonders aloud. He's brash and kind of annoying, but they need a little more muscle in the party, so his offer to travel with the party is accepted. Doesn't look like Hexxat is coming, so they decide to hit the road and see what Nalia's problem is.
On their way out of the city, a group of back alley hooligans attack them. They do a number on our heroes, but nothing fatal. When the skirmish is over, Pollie notices a man huddled behind some barrels. He's seen better days, and asks, nay, pleads with Pollie to take him to see a man near the docks who can help him. She agrees. Their "package" is delivered forthwith, and everyone is happy. They are still pretty beat up from the tussle with the ruffians, so decide to head for the nearest inn to rest up.
Before they arrive at the inn, a strange looking man pulls them aside. It's our old friend Xzar, back from the dead. This is a strange city. It seems to have a real problem with the undead and recently dead. Xzar asks Pollie for some help. His old chum Montaron has, it seems, run afoul of the Harpers based in the building they just dropped the wounded man at. "Very well, but not before we get a damn night's sleep."
They find an inn a few doors away. Upon entering, Jaheira is accosted by a man who claims to know her. She plays coy, but it turns out she had exposed him as a slaver, and he is none too happy about it. A wizard poofs in, places a curse on Jaheira, and poofs back out. Damn it. Pollie just wants to lie the **** down for a few hours, but looks like that's not going to happen anytime soon.
They schlep back over to the slums where Jaheira thinks they might be able to help. Bernard at the Copper Coronet tells them the man who would have been ble to help was recently murdered, but it's just a couple of streets over if they wanted to go have a look. There they find the man from the other inn [BTW I'm writing all this with no notes, so forgive me for the lack of names for anyone] and his wizard cronies. A fantastic battle ensues. No, really, you should have seen it! It was awesome! They defeat the slaver and his crew, and FINALLY hit the hay. Jaheira is all better.
Pollie decides they may as well go help out Xzar. I mean, he did die while helping her, so it's the least they can do. Back at the docks, the Harper compound is skillfully penetrated. Well, they basically bought their way in by running an "errand" for the Harpers, which involved killing a pair of apprentice necromancers and some goblins. Nothing to sweat. Inside of the Harpers' HQ, Montaron is located, cleverly disguised as a bird. He is placed on Minsc's other shoulder, and Boo is smitten. Upon returning to Xzar, the bird transforms into a woman who cuts Xzar down. He dies with a very surprised look on his face. Pollie is a little pissed that the Harpers played her in their little game of cat and mouse. Oh well, no harm done (unless you ask Xzar). Pollie can't just leave her former companion lying in the gutter, so Minsc once again becomes a body mule and they head out to see if Khalid needs someone to chat with...
Before they make it out of town, Jaheira is once again approached by a stranger who whispers something in her ear. Jaheira announces she must leave temporarily but promises to return. "You do you," says Pollie. So at last they head out of town, this time for real, and make it back to Watcher's Keep. And this is where we will leave off for the day...
I'm looking forward to seeing how Anomen fits in with the random insanity that constitutes Pollie's decision-making skills. >:D
p.s. if you haven't played BGII yet, I STRONGLY recommend reading no further. There are some surprises that are best discovered on your own.
I.E., I won't stop and YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!!
edit: it's been quite a while since I left off, so I may need to start over.