This way lies Madness

FrdNwsm

Leaving half of Burning Law burning, MC and his companions strode confidently up the hills toward the infamous and forbidding Asylum. Nothing would stand in the way of rescuing good ole sis! Brushing aside token resistance, they stormed into the place, weapons at the ready ... only to be greeted at the door by ... a tour guide? He had an oddly familiar voice, but he did mention something about concession stands, so the group followed him. Maybe there was punch-n-pie up ahead.

No such luck. Asylum rooms with various incarcerated loonies were passed, with the foibles of each inhabitant being pointed out by our host. In the last room was sister Imoen, looking a bit pale around the gills. Wait! Betrayal! Treachery! Smirking broadly, the "guide" revealed himself as (surprise!) Irenicus, and with a wave of his hands transported the group to an ominous looking chamber. Can you say OP?

I can't imagine anyone who doesn't know this, but Yoshimo turns out to have been a "plant" by Irenicus, who betrays the party into captivity

MC suddenly found himself in an oddly blood-colored landscape that looked like Candlekeep ... with a demon at the doorway who wanted some sort of sacrifice to grant entry. No thanks. MC decided to explore the grounds. Wandering around outside, who should he bump into but good old Dad! Hi dad! How's mom?

Ooops. OK, Dad was feeling murderous (gee, the Murder God is in "Kill" mode) and started attacking. In a rather Oedipal mood, MC started fighting back, giving twice as good as he got. Soon, Bhaal was almost dead! Another few hits and he surely would go down! MC kept swinging and swigging healing potions ... and Bhaal kept looking just about dead but ... didn't go down! MC isn't all that bright; took a while to realize that this just might be a dream sequence. I mean, Dad was dead, after all, and really shouldn't be here. Back to the demon at the doorway! MC sacrificed a bit of wisdom to get in, since he clearly wasn't using it anyway. Inside he bumped into Imoen who joined up to fight in the Family Feud. Things looked good for a few minutes, but then Imoen lost it and suddenly the battle was over. MC abruptly ended up strapped down in what looked like a mad scientist's lab in a bad play that was being put on by Haer'Dalis's theatre group, with a smirking Irenicus in charge.

Switches were thrown, Shadow Thieves in bell jars died, MC's powers were ripped away, and he passed out. When he recovered consciousness, he and his companions were in a bad way, in a dark and grim chamber deep under ground, being taunted by a mocking Bhodi who was ... Irenicus' sister? Odd, they didn't look at all alike. Must be that whole "undead" thing; ruins your complexion. Anyway, she informed everyone that instead of being killed off right away, they were to run a gauntlet of challenges to keep her amused, and then vanished. And still no punch-n-pie. Bummer of a start to the day.


[OOC note: I have no idea what the purpose of that entire dream sequence was. A mood setter maybe? If you are dumb enough to keep fighting Dream Bhaal, can you die there? The damage certainly seemed real, as was the loss of 1 point from a stat.]

FrdNwsm

And what happens if Yoshimo isn't in the group? I had almost taken Nalia with us instead, but decided I needed a more competent thief, since she's pretty borderline even with all those skill enhancement items. The plot is pretty scripted, so I imagine some sort of odd Deus ex Machina would occur to keep everything on track

Well, at least Imoen was back; good, the group needed a competent thief and another mage was never to be turned down. The party found itself in a dark and ominous area, which they spent some time exploring. Some creatures were encountered but were not much of a challenge, and were promptly dispatched. More interesting were several rooms filled with devices that tested knowledge and logic. Without even the use of any Cliff notes, MC aced every test! Hmm, perhaps he wasn't so dumb after all! There were a number of such intellect challenges, but none proved anything more than a brief obstacle.

[Ed. Note: Unlike some of the "puzzles" in the past in both BG1 and SoA, these were refreshingly easy to solve just using logic. I can't give any answers, of course, without being a "spoiler".]

The various levels of the dungeon were explored, and grudgingly gave up their secrets. Creatures were defeated fairly easily, with few exceptions. One such group consisted of a lich and his undead flunkies. Arg! Yet another opponent who could cast Time Stop! MC looked at Imoen and Neera; when the heck would THEY be powerful enough to cast such spells? Apparently not for quite a while, since Neera had only recently gotten the ability to cast 7th Circle spells. "Patience" muttered MC. "Time will cure such lacks."

Onward and upward! Pressing forward, the group suddenly ran into Bhodi again. The undead ditch pig had gotten bored seeing us defeat her pets so handily and decided to end the game early. Ooooh, that made MC so mad! Seeing red, growling, screaming epithets MC went berserk ... big time. Even Bhodi was scared spitless, and ran off to inform her bro that things had changed. Actually, the rest of the group was a bit shaken as well. And MC was finding it hard to control his murderous impulses; channeling his dead pop, maybe? A sobering thought. Reflection could wait, however; time to find a way out of this damned maze.

FrdNwsm

The party finally found the key to the exit, whereupon a group of apparitions began yet another round of tests. Apparently, any patients who wanted to get out of the Asylum had to prove their sanity to these ethereal overseers. Once again, the tests were passed; MC was proven sane, much to the astonishment of the rest of the group. We all exited onto the level of Irenicus' lab. MC wanted to attack right away, but cooler heads prevailed, and the group decided to seek reinforcements amongst the various patients they had encountered previously on the "introductory tour". And a whacky group they were, but they were eventually persuaded to partake in a general revolution. "A bas L' Irenicus"!

Waving pitchforks and torches, the group descended en masse upon the Lab to destroy the Monster! A confused melee ensued; MC's recollections of the fight later were pretty hazy, but Irenicus began to take damage, and eventually fled, ceding us the victory! At which point, for absolutely no discernible reason, Mr. Y showed up out of nowhere at the head of a horde of murderers, and yet another brawl ensued. Y and his boys bought the farm; with his dying breath, he requested that his heart be brought to a Temple for cleansing. Umm, never heard of that particular ritual, but what the heck. One heart in a box, to go.

Will wonders never cease?? Our old "friend" SS climbed up out of some hole somewhere, claimed he had been coerced into betraying us, but now could offer us a way out. Apparently the usual exit had been sealed, but he could teleport us back outside. Since the only other obvous escape was a blind teleportal device in Irenicus' own lair, we decided this was the (probably) safer route to take. Poof! SS dimension doored everybody back outside. Another spell MC really really wanted to learn!

Nursing a severe case of magic envy, MC shepherded his bedraggled crew back to town, where SS supposedly would have a ship waiting to transport them all away from this seaside paradise and back to the dull and mundane work-a-day world.

FrdNwsm

And now for something completely bogus

Just for laughs, I had MC confront Irenicus alone, leaving everybody else out in the corridor and assuming the Slayer form. I figured that there was no way this was going to work, but was curious to see what happened. Well, what happened was nothing whatsoever except that Irenicus snapped his fingers and everybody died, even the people I left outside. No amusing verbal play, no saving throw, no dramatic cut scene, no explanation whatsoever. It's as though the developers said "You don't want to follow the script? You're dead. Go home." And why can't he use this ability when the larger group attacks him? No logic here at all. Even if his spell or ability or whatever only affects 6 targets at most, he should have used it to clear out half of his opponents.

I call Shenanigans!

JuliusBorisov

FrdNwsm said:

And what happens if Yoshimo isn't in the group? I had almost taken Nalia with us instead, but decided I needed a more competent thief, since she's pretty borderline even with all those skill enhancement items. The plot is pretty scripted, so I imagine some sort of odd Deus ex maxhina would occur to keep everything on track

In this case Yoshimo just don't show up in the Spellhold and the next time you enter the area where you left him, for e.g., the Copper Coronet, Yoshimo dies.

BTW, the original developers had several lines for future events that tended to show the Yoshimo's story could be different. Thankfully we have a mod by @CrevsDaak and @Lemernis to keep Yoshimo in the party after the Spellhold events.

FrdNwsm

Arriving at the docks, SS informed the group that there had been (surprise again!) a slight hitch in the preparations for sailing. His own ship was unavailable, so he wanted to hijack the ship belonging to the Pirate Lord himself. MC didn't see what the problem was, since the guy was already DEAD. Well, among other things, they needed a Pirate Horn to signal the sentries to open the sea gates and let the ship out. This was in the possession of Dead Pirate Robert's gal pal; but we could only find her at home at night, when she could usually be found boffing her latest boy-toy. You might say she had "horny" tendencies.

Fine; MC and Co. decided to play papparazzi, and lurked around the place, popping in and out and hoping to catch her en flagrante delicto. It took 4 days but we finally got the photos we needed, killed her guards and grabbed the horn. Meanwhile, we whacked several bands of pirates who were feeling really suicidal, thereby justifying MC's murderous rampage against them earlier. Pirates are just scum.

Back to the ship! We swarmed aboard and were just about to set sail, when who should show up but the Dead, errr, not-so-dead, Pirate Lord himself. Well, gee, guess you can't keep a bad pirate down. MC really shouldn't have been so surprised; a local crime boss like him would surely have some flunkies with their own rod of Resurrection, or some such similar device, or even just a local cleric standing by with a raise dead spell on-call.

A minor mutiny arose and was put down, and Roberts was dead again. Fine. NOW can we please get under way??

FrdNwsm

lunar

Though not explained fully, I always reason that Irenicus can not use his special 'I kill u all' spell named 'Rapture of the Father' because when he faces the pc with the horde of mad wizards backing them up, the sum of mental resistance powered by their madness and grief, and overpowerful spell energies from those wizards disrupt his concentration so he can not tap into that power:he has to battle normally. When he leaves, he kills all of the mad wizards with a parting spell. Oddly, it is a true sight. I think he finally manages to overpower the mental barrier erected by the powerful subconciousness of the mad wizards, thereby killing them all instantly. But he is weakened as well, so wows revenge and flees just like any other nice villain.

Jarrakul

To elaborate on the "without Yoshimo" thing, if you don't take Yoshi it turns out SS betrayed you to Irenicus instead. Turns out smugglers are corrupt, and will gladly take money from two sources. Who knew?

FrdNwsm

Jarrakul said:

To elaborate on the "without Yoshimo" thing, if you don't take Yoshi it turns out SS betrayed you to Irenicus instead. Turns out smugglers are corrupt, and will gladly take money from two sources. Who knew?

Hmm, that's interesting. But then, is SS available afterwards to sail you off of the island? And is Yoshimo then still a loyal NPC you can recruit?

Yannir

FrdNwsm said:

Hmm, that's interesting. But then, is SS available afterwards to sail you off of the island? And is Yoshimo then still a loyal NPC you can recruit?

Yeah, SS is still available. He's a smugler, and smuglers gladly take money wherever they can get it. And Yoshimo still dies. There's a geas which Yoshi is under, and I think failure to accompany the group to Spellhold would upset Mr. I, thus using the geas to wrench Yoshis heart into knots.