Keeping Khalid Company v2.0 (spoilers)
procco
Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 915
I am going to reboot my aborted play through originally found at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/41390/keeping-khalid-company-spoilers#latest
Rather than starting again from the very beginning, I'm starting from an early save. The beginning of that story will be the beginning of this one. For convenience, here are the first couple of installments from the original run:
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...
Pollie and her little group take a few hours to regroup and hunt down a tavern to grab a little shut-eye. With renewed vigor they head out into the city to see what's what and try to figure out where Imoen has been taken. Job number one is finding her. No distractions. Just focus on the job at hand.
"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 so the second tale of Pollie and her unfortunate companions begins (again).
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/41390/keeping-khalid-company-spoilers#latest
Rather than starting again from the very beginning, I'm starting from an early save. The beginning of that story will be the beginning of this one. For convenience, here are the first couple of installments from the original run:
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...
Pollie and her little group take a few hours to regroup and hunt down a tavern to grab a little shut-eye. With renewed vigor they head out into the city to see what's what and try to figure out where Imoen has been taken. Job number one is finding her. No distractions. Just focus on the job at hand.
"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 so the second tale of Pollie and her unfortunate companions begins (again).
Post edited by procco on
3
Comments
However various characters who hang around Athkatla are busily packing their bags and heading home to Mum, having come to the conclusion that being an adventurer with Polly might not be such a great career move.
As soon as Nalia heads out, Pollie is approached by a well-groomed, confident seeming man. he introduces himself as Anomen. After a bit of back and forth over who is the more righteous, he agrees to joing the party. Pollie isn't too fond of him at this point. He seems a bit arrogant, but perhaps he can handle his mace as well as he says. The jury is definitely still out on him. Jaheira seems to like him, and any allies Pollie can gather in this new city are welcome.
Continuing their lengthy walk to the bar for a drink, the group is once again pulled aside by a tavern patron. This time it is a young, sickly looking girl. She has a funny way of speaking, but there is something about her that Pollie finds intriguing. The girl, Hexxat, talks of treasure, and that's the magic word. Yoshimo is asked to hang out and, uh, keep an ear out for rumors and leads to make room in the party.
Another man pulls Pollie aside, with a request for certain services. He offers 10,000gp for simply killing some beasts that have found themselves in his land. Pollie sniffs. That's a suspiciously large amount of gold for a seemingly simple task. Maybe the guy just doesn't know what things cost. More likely he's up to something. Either way, she agrees to meet him there in due time. All that cash would come in handy, after all.
Finally able to get to the bar, Pollie has a word with the tavern's owner. He hints at special services and entertainments that can be found in the back rooms. Curious as always, Pollie investigates. She witnesses the murder of a courtesan at the hands of a jealous wife, gets in a fight with a dwarf and steals his teddy bear, and uncovers a secret den of drug addled individuals. Deeper in the back rooms, the party is confronted by guards who immediately attack. The nerve! Pollie mutters something underneath her breath. Unfortunately what she muttered was a web spell, which manages to snare everyone on her party other than herself and Aerie. It caught a few of the guards as well, but not all of them. With some quick thinking, Aerie calls up a couple of skeletons to keep a spellcaster busy while she and Pollie pelt the other guards with sticks and stones. Soon enough the web spell cleared out and the others cleaned up the guards with no trouble.
Investigating the prison cells they found in this room, they find some poor saps locked up. They need to find a key from the tavern's beast master. What a strange city. Do all taverns here have beast masters? Well, that question will have to wait for another day. This day, Pollie and crew, with a bunch of hacking, slashing, poking and ensorcelling get that key and free the prisoners. At this point, all hell breaks loose, ending in a pretty fabulous bar brawl which leaves the owner of the bar dead. The freed prisoner, Hendak, is now the boss of this here saloon. He tells Pollie of a nearby slaver compound, and asks her help in making their business, eh, less viable. Jaheira pipes in with some strong opinions in favor of shutting them down, and the others in the party agree.
At this point, young Hexxat starts muttering about the treasure she needs to recover. Then she starts not shutting up about it to the point that Pollie agrees it might be time to go investigate this Dragomir's tomb to see what's what. Off they go to the graveyard district.
Naturally, they didn't plan things out very well and arrive there in the middle of the nighit. Man, is it ever spooky. While looking for the tomb, they happen upon the ghost of a small boy. He tells them he can't sleep because he's lost his teddy bear. It was taken by a mean little dwarf. Pollie asks "what's the bear worth to you, kid? Nah, I'm just foolin with ya. Here's your bear." And the little ghost scampers off to his dirt bed in his cute little footie pj's.
At last, they locate Dragomir's tomb and head on in through some old TV screen looking portal. Long story short, lots of undead critter become less undead and more actually dead, Dragomir gives up his ghost (and more importantly his cloak) to some cunning strategy (mainly, a berserked Minsc whacked away at him till he died), and it turned out Hexxat was not Hexxat at all. She was merely a pawn named Clara. The real Hexxat reveals herself as a vampire (with a heart of gold, Pollie hopes), and insists on taking Clara's place in the party. Well, this could be bad news, but, again, Pollie is none too picky about the help she's gathering right now.
Heading back out through the grave yard, they hear someone calling from a fresh grave. Digging the poor fellow out, he begs them to find the evil wretches who did this to him. They agree and start by talking to the nearby grave digger. He says he was just doing his job, and some guy in a red cloak made him do it. Another mystery!
Without further ado, they return to the Copper Coronet for some much needed shut eye.
Back at the Copper Coronet, she has one of the courtesans dye her hair black, and with a bit of makeup she is the spitting image of Clara. A nice disguise, as she has already been drawing attention in this new city. She collects her companions and the corpse, and makes a trip out to Watcher's Keep. Khalid has his first bit of company.
The tunnels they find area infested with hobgoblins, kobolds, and carrion crawlers. Pollie gets a touch of nostalgia for the sewers of Baldur's They work their way through with minimal difficulty, and eventually come upon a wretched little man talking some nonsense about a sword. A new sword would be handy to have, so she follows the man's instructions, gathers some junk from the dungeon, solves a few riddles, and gathers up that sword. This is no normal sword, though. Pollie would have been pretty irritated if it had been. This is a talking sword with a penchant for cracking wise. Well met, talking sword.
Making their way out of the tunnels, the party opens a door into a loaded warehouse. And by loaded, I mean loaded with a bunch of thugs who are up to no good and who are bent on not letting word of their no-good-doing ways leaving said warehouse. Under pressure, the spell casters in the party blurt out whatever spell comes to mind. Fortunately, a spell of cloud kill comes to Pollie's mind, which does some good damage to a fair number of the slavers. The remaining slavers prove not much of a challenge for our team.
Moving into the compound, the party finds some pens with young children being guarded by trolls. Ugh. Trolls. Fortunately, Yoshimo had recently been browsing through Volo's Bathroom Book of Beasts and Badguys (and How to Beat Them), and knew to hit the trolls with some fire and acid once they fell to the ground. Trolls dispatched, children freed. The remaining slavers in the compound, including some strange lizard/snake/man hybrid monstrosities met the same fate as their brethren. At the Copper Coronet, Hendak was glad to hear of the raid, and rewarded the party.
Basically, what it said (because I don't feel like reconstructing the whole post, and I'm way behind on my updates and just want to get caught up):
Pollie and Co. ran out to Umar Hills, killed a golem, met Valygar, discovered the journal of the local ranger who was investigating some mysterious murders in the region, and headed back to Athkatla, leaving the murders unsolved...for now.
Back in the city, another murder mystery is given to Pollie to solve in the Bridge District. Some ghoulish individual is skinning people in the area. Some detective work worthy of, er, some famous detective, led the party to the workplace of the local tanner. He quickly caved under Pollie's interrogations (more likely it was Minsc brandishing his talking sword) and bolted for the basement. They followed him, but he managed to escape. His cronies were not so lucky. Nor was the city's investigator, who's body was found on the scene. Pollie also discovered an unfinished suit made of human flesh, and a clue in riddle form as to where to take it. That nasty thing went straight into the bag of holding. Pollie has gotten used to Lugging around bodies in her travels, but this was some other sort of terrible. This will need further investigation at a later time.
Our group of heroes decide to call it a day and head back to the Copper Coronet. On their way, however, they are waylaid by enemies must defend themselves. The group of back alley thugs are easily beaten. While looting their attackers, they discover an injured man. He begs them to take him to see a man in the docks district. They agree. Having delivered the man to his friends, they head for a local inn, but who should they run into on the street but Pollie's old "friend" Xzar. Xzar tells her his partner Montaron has been take captive by some Harpers in the building they just dropped the injured man off at, and would like for the party to find a way in to free him. Doesn't sound like such a great idea to Pollie, but Xzar did say he had some treasures to give in exchange. Very well.
In order to gain entrance to the Harpers' building, Pollie and co. must first prove their trustworthiness by eliminating the creations of a crazed wizard named Prebek. At Prebek's home, they find two of his students and an assortment of creatures. The students learned their final lesson this day. Having gained entrance to the Harpers's building, Montaron is located, but he has been transformed into a bird. They take the bird back to Xzar, who is understandably distraught. Fortunately, his distress is short lived, as the bird transforms into a Harper assassin who strikes him down. Poor old sod. The Harper bird assassin has some words with Jaheira. Jaheira explains that she must leave on Harper business, but will return. In the meantime, Pollie decides it's fitting that Xzar should be out to rest out in the grove with Khalid. Best to do it now while Jaheira's gone. Seeing her husband's remains is really starting to get to her.