@Arvia , Congratulations on making it this far without another reload. That fight with the bandits, the fight with spiders, and the fight with ogrillons can be very deadly.
Condolences on your lost text. I like to click "Save Draft" down at the bottom of the screen while I'm composing longer posts on the forum.
Thanks for the nod in the story. You made me smile.
That Belt of Masculinity/Femininity is an infamous cursed item from the first edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. Rich Burlew even made a joke about it in early "Order of the Stick". Since a lot of teenage boys play D&D, you can just imagine the jokes they make among themselves about that belt, and have been doing so since the 1970's.
The original BG devs were making a wink and a nod to the original AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, and also to the long tradition of jokes. They also wanted to use it early in the game to teach new players that they should identify items before putting them on.
@BelgarathMTH , that was my intention you already managed to make me smile last week when I didn't feel like smiling at all. You too, @semiticgod. Have I mentioned how glad I am to have stumbled into this forum?
With almost all their gold spent and Ajantis being better protected in his new plate mail, a red-eyed Imoen informed Arvia that she had found a young family, probably murdered by the Ogrillons, when they had been taking care of Ajantis' wounds. She had found a family amulet on their bodies and gave it to Arvia now. Together, they went around knocking on a few doors in Beregost, until they found their home and gave the amulet, along with the information where to find their bodies, to the grieving relatives.
Apart from a few minor attacks by some xvart, gibberlings and a ghoul, a group of Flaming Fist Mercenaries mistook them for bandits and tried to arrest them, but somehow Arvia managed to convince them of their innocence and they arrived in Nashkel without further disturbances.
Jaheira insisted on seeing the mayor first, who asked them to investigate the Nashkel mines, where miners kept disappearing and strange rumours about monsters in the depth had started.
Afterwards, they went straight to the inn to rest for a while, but were attacked by yet another assassin immediately after entering.
Fortunately, having no chance to go around stealing any longer, Imoen seemed to have spent her time practising with her Wand of Magic Missiles and managed to interrupt every spell the assassin tried to cast on them, so that the fighters had a chance to defend themselves and kill their attacker.
The following day they met a ranger named Minsc in the village of Nashkel, who asked their help to rescue his friend, a mage called Dynaheir, who had been captured by gnolls. They also learned the sad story of Captain Brage and went to the carnival next to the village to find out more about the rumours in the region. Imoen's eyes lit up at all the colourful tents, but Ajantis helped Arvia to keep an eye on her immature little friend, and they had no money to spend anyway.
Arvia didn't want to waste time, but was utterly disgusted when offered a scroll for 500gp to release a petrified young woman. What did these people consider entertainment?
Before she could talk some sense into the owner of the scroll, Jaheira decided to take the matter in her own hands, beat him senseless with her club and grabbed the scroll.
She freed the woman, who thanked them and introduced herself as Branwen. While Arvia respected the druid as Gorion's friend and understood (and even shared) her anger, she didn't approve of her methods, and the two of them entered into a heated discussion about justice. Ajantis went to find some equipment for Branwen, who was all alone and wanted to travel for a while in their company, but Arvia and Jaheira came to the conclusion that although they respected each other, it would be best to go separate ways, at least for a while. So she and her husband wished them well and left the group, promising to leave notice in the Friendly Arm Inn in case they wanted to meet again in the future.
With Branwen equipped and rested, the group set out into the direction where Minsc expected to find his friend.
Arvia was hurt by Jaheira's behaviour and wondered if Gorion would agree with her, but now was not the time for doubts and worries.
They headed west and came into a mountainous area, where it would be difficult to see any approaching attackers. Arvia hadn't forgotten the cleric's advice about keeping their distance from enemies until they were more experienced, so they trod carefully with their bows equipped. Imoen tried to scout ahead but wasn't very good at it, and suddenly they found themselves in the middle of a large group of xvart, accompanied by a fierce cave bear. They tried to flee, but they were surrounded and saw no chance but to fight their way out. Xvart hadn't seemed too dangerous until now, but their numbers were overwhelming and the bear's claws took Ajantis down before they could do anything about it. The xvart got distracted for a moment and they had to take the chance to escape from between the rocks into open area. They were followed of course, and Minsc was already severely wounded, but they managed to kill the bear and the remaining xvart.
Their attempt to recover Ajantis' body was interrupted by even more angry xvart, and after killing them all, Arvia saw, horrified, that they were in an encampment of some sort. Had they slaughtered a whole village of innocents who had only thought it necessary to defend themselves against intruders?
Minsc had to carry Ajantis, and Arvia was so tormented by her conscience that she lead them into the wrong direction and stumbled into a dark cave, where she faced another bear. This time, they managed to escape and the bear didn't follow them.
Imoen reminded her that they needed money to Raise Ajantis at the temple in Nashkel, and asked her to reconsider her decision of leaving the winter wolf behind that had attacked them along the way. The merchant in Nashkel had offered good money for a winter wolf pelt, but Arvia had been disgusted at the thought of hunting animals for their pelts. They did hunt for food, of course, but winter wolf meat wasn't even edible.
However, saving the life of a friend was more important, and she thanked Imoen for the good idea. She began to see her friend in a different light. She really seemed to start thinking and planning ahead instead of behaving like a child. They went to get the pelt and took turns carrying it and Ajantis back to Nashkel.
After successfully restoring Ajantis' life and health at the temple, Minsc reminded them with growing impatience to get back and find Dynaheir as soon as possible. Arvia sent her friends ahead to the inn to eat and rest. She still felt terrible about eradicating that whole xvart village, doubted her decision to split up with Khalid and Jaheira, and wanted to be alone for a while.
Reloads: 1 (the ogre with the belt fetish south of the FIA)
I would also like to add that I successfully resisted the temptation to reload after wasting some of the little money I had by accidentally buying a large shield for Branwen (she can only use medium shields) *and* making a perfectly healthy Minsc drink one of our precious few potions of healing when I wanted to move one of them from his to Branwen's inventory. ?
And I was glad to find out that it was an encampment of xvart raiders, not a village.
Now it's time to hunt some gnolls.
Arriving at the Gnoll Stronghold, the group took a short break to prepare their weapons and talk about strategies.
The road had been a dangerous one. Arvia hoped that some day she'd get the chance to thank that cleric who had taught them how to handle strong and dangerous enemies. Without his helpful advice they'd be long dead.
She usually liked to write a detailed report into her journal every evening, to reflect on everything that had happened and organize her thoughts, but time was short, they had to rescue Minsc's friend, so she just scribbled down a few short notes about the dangers they had encountered between Nashkel and the Gnoll Stronghold:
- a screaming man said he was followed by a huge bear. We offered help, and learned that polar bears are very dangerous creatures. That was close.
- as if ogres weren't enough, we were attacked by an ogre berserker. Our strategy worked, but it involved even more running and critical wounds than fighting a "normal" ogre.
- no matter how tired your companions are, don't try to sleep in ogre territory
- don't underestimate a horde of wild dogs
- ogre berserkers are *very* dangerous. Had to carry Branwen back to Nashkel temple, almost lost Ajantis, too.
- got waylaid by gnolls on the way back.
- have to get into the Stronghold and hope that Minsc's friend is still alive. He's angry because it took so long to get here, but we couldn't let Branwen die, either. I hope we're not too late to save Dynaheir.
Reloads: 1 (the ogre with the belt fetish south of the FAI)
That was close with those bears! And ogre berserkers! I'm glad you've learned how to manage to survive those kinds of encounters.
You didn't mention the hobgoblin elites on the north bridge. You avoided them, I hope, or else had enough antidotes to deal with their poison arrows. Jaheira will have access to Slow Poison when she gets second level spells, which can help.
Now that you have Branwen, I advise keeping at least one first level spell slot filled with Remove Fear, and the first thing she does when you see a mage should be to immediately cast Remove Fear, because the first thing they're going to be doing is casting Horror. I recommend the rest of her first level slots be filled with Command. That spell can drop ogres and ogre berserkers (and other dangerous enemies) for one round, which is usually enough time to kill them or almost kill them with arrows. The Command spell can trivialize some of the worst encounters for level 1-3 players.
As soon as you can afford the Wand of Sleep from Thalantyr, the Sleep spell can also be an "I win" button for many low level encounters.
Congratulations on getting this far with no more reloads. I hope the gnoll stronghold map goes as well. I *really* hope Minsc's timer doesn't go off on you, because he won't just leave if it does, he'll go nuts and attack you. Unless the NPC Project changed that. I haven't used it in a long time.
@BelgarathMTH , glad to hear my decision to leave the north of the map alone was right. After that polar bear, an ogre and two ogre berserkers all in the same map, I really didn't feel like exploring it further at level 2.
I had no idea about the hobgoblin elite. And I'll never be able to buy any good equipment if I keep spending all my money on Raise Dead ?.
About your advice for Branwen's spells, do you really propose to walk around without any healing spells memorized, or didn't you see that I split up with Khalid and Jaheira to make room for the others?
I will use Remove Fear of course, but I think the rest of the slots will be healing spells until I find or can buy more potions. And once she gets level 2 spells I can use Hold Person, too. Didn't know how useful Command is, thank you. I'll keep that in mind once Cure Light Wounds gets out of fashion.
I know about Minsc's timer, I opened a thread because of it during my first week here (back then when I registered. Wow, that was only a month ago), that's why I was so nervous when we had to go back to Nashkel to Raise Branwen.
But he's fine, and we're in the gnoll map.
Progress is slow in my game because the time between "kids asleep" and "me asleep" is kind of limited. And because it takes much more time to clear a map when you're careful and don't know what to expect.
I really like the minimal reload concept. If my time to play is very limited, at least it should feel right.
@Arvia , Oh, yes, you're right, I didn't really think about how since you let Khalid and Jaheira go in favor of Ajantis and Branwen, Branwen is now your only source of Cure Light Wounds. My bad.
@Arvia, not sure how you feel, but a new player might become very angry about all those character deaths and the need to go back and forth between temples and areas, getting into ambushes. This is completely normal, and eventually, you will become stronger than that. The game will open up once you reach lvls 4-5.
Your reports are nice to read, and you're doing alright!
@BelgarathMTH ,okay, sorry for the misunderstanding. I was wondering how I'm supposed to survive without healing spells. Sorry, my mind was in too many places at the same time.
@JuliusBorisov thank you. I'm not angry at all, this was my own choice after all.
If I didn't like it, I'd stop playing this way. But once I've smelled a challenge, I have to try it...
It's late ( or early) and I'm not in the mood to write stories today, but I'd still like to report before I forget everything.
The Gnoll Stronghold was no problem, 24 HP at level 2 seem to be enough to tank ogrillons, and although I don't use unidentified items and will have to wait until Nashkel, those Gauntlets of Dexterity might protect Ajantis from needing CPR, I mean Raise Dead, after every battle.
Gnolls don't seem to be too dangerous, apart from their habit to sneak around you and attack the weak party members. We rescued Dynaheir, but is there really a spell book somewhere?
The rest of the map was good for a couple of XP and some gold. We avoided the same way back and went to the Cloud Peak map, got attacked by a winter wolf and kept the pelt this time, because we really need to buy some better equipment.
Helped the dryad rescue her tree, of course, and saved the dead cat.
I didn't like these dialogue choices.
I didn't want to bribe them, but the other two options were either to lie or to insult them without reason, so I decided to pay the 50 gp and let them leave.
We got back to Beregost, sold what we didn't need, got plate mail for Minsc and Branwen, too, and +1 weapons for half of us (couldn't afford more), then got those 4 Potions of Genius from Gellana Mirrorshade and a few Elixier of Health.
Went to High Hedge to talk to the mage, noticed that we don't have enough money anyway, and then Ajantis got killed again by a ghast. *sigh*
I decided to call it a night. He'll be carried to the temple (third time I think) tomorrow, then we'll try our luck with Bassilius ( I hope he won't cause my second reload. Any strategical advice on him, @BelgarathMTH ?) and proceed to the Nashkel Mines after that.
Most of us are level 3 now. Branwen has got 2nd level spells, but Dynaheir still has got only level 1 spells, so I didn't make her scribe any scrolls yet. Magic missile it is, until then. Does her spell book exist somewhere?
Reloads: 1 (the ogre with the belt fetish south of the FIA)
Hmm, well, first, great update! Wonderful progress.
On Ajantis and the ghast: Did you try to tank the ghast and get him killed to paralyzing touch? Do *not* tank ghouls or ghasts with any character but yourself (and you only because you're an undead hunter and have immunity to the paralyzing touch). *Nobody* and I mean *nobody* who isn't hold immune should *ever* tank a ghoul or a ghast, under *any* circumstances. They are a "kite and kill at range" enemy, even for high level characters. If you or your cleric can turn them, that is very helpful. (Apologies if I'm telling you stuff you already know, but you do know that being Held negates all AC and guarantees every enemy roll is a hit, right?)
Otherwise, you just have to get AC as high (or really in this game, as low) as possible. I appreciate your holding off on immediately equipping the Gauntlets of Dexterity on Ajantis, but doing so as soon as you can get them identified should be very helpful. Also, get both you and him into full plate as soon as possible. And try to get him a Ring of Protection +1.
Branwen, you, or Ajantis would be very much safer using Ankheg Plate. Do you know where to go get that in Nashkel, or do you consider it cheating to collect the "Easter Egg" items? There's also a free Ring of Protection +1 in a rock north of the Lion's Way marker on the map between Candlekeep and the FAI.
If you didn't know, there's also a Ring of Wizardry just southeast of the FAI that will give Dynaheir a whole bunch more spell slots. And, there's a Wand of Frost in a tree at the far northwest corner of the Nashkel Mines map, but that wand is very dangerous to use in a party. It's very powerful, but you have to make sure no friends are in the way of its cone effect.
You are costing AJ at least 1 AC by roleplaying that he has to use that shield he gets from the NPC Project. But, I appreciate that you want to do that.
Make sure you are having people drink healing potions as soon as they are at no less than one half their health. Don't wait until they're desperately low and one more hit will kill them. Healing spells are too slow to cast to be of consistent help during combat. Don't try to hope for a healing spell to go off before the fatal blow happens. Drink a healing potion. That's what they're for. (Apologies if that is obvious and you've already been doing that.)
I've never been able to solve the Dynaheir spellbook quest from the NPC Project. Maybe somebody else can help you with that. I think, if I remember correctly, it's somewhere on that map to the north with the polar bear and the bridges and the ogres and hobgoblins, but there's also a bunch of conditions on getting the resolution to trigger.
EDIT: It might go without saying, but you do have AJ wearing a helmet, don't you? You're not getting him killed to critical hits? I know he looks pretty with his long, flowing, blond hair, but he really needs to wear a helmet.
(Apologies if I'm telling you stuff you already know, but you do know that being Held negates all AC and guarantees every enemy roll is a hit, right?)
No, I didn't know that. He was already wearing the Gauntlets of Dexterity and had AC -3 like me. I had no idea or I would have tanked the ghast alone.
If it's about game mechanics that aren't 100% obvious, it's usually safe to assume that I don't know.
Okay I think I'm not going to actively search for Dynaheir's Spellbook. Didn't know it was an NPC Project thing.
No, I think it's okay to collect Easter Egg items as long as they don't require impossible knowledge to find them. It's difficult enough to play for a beginner. I know you can let the smith in Beregost make Ankheg Plate if you kill one and get the shell, I think. But I'm not confident I can kill one. Or did you mean another way of getting Ankheg Plate?
I know it costs him 1 AC, and I don't want to exaggerate, but I just can't imagine Ajantis discarding his family shield for another -1 in AC.
of course he's wearing a helmet, I'm not crazy! I think I remember reading somewhere that you didn't use helmets when you played BG for the first time, because they looked silly and you didn't know about critical hits ?
You know, when he offered to carry some of my equipment, I really had to laugh because I wished I could have reminded him how I had to carry his dead body including armor and everything back to the temple.
That portrait is much prettier than the actual one. (very realistic hairstyle for someone fighting and traveling and sleeping in the forest *cough*) And looks even younger.
Dang! I really wanted to read his romance dialogues, but now I don't know if I can. I can't possibly roleplay flirting with a boy who looks 20 years younger than me!
EDIT: Stop apologizing for telling me things that might be obvious. Some are, but a lot of them aren't, and I really appreciate how much I'm learning from reading your posts. Otherwise, my reload counter would probably be at 20.
@JuliusBorisov , thank you for the advice on Bassilius. Then I'll go to the mines, first.
I didn't even think to look for a manual in the folder (android).irl: WIS 5!
*cough rtfm cough*
Sorry for asking so many dumb questions without reading somewhere else first
No need to feel sorry. Asking questions is exactly what this forum is for. Also, what I meant by that advice was - "you'd feel yourself better and more knowledgeable about the rules, spells, and such", not "stop asking".
Quick correction to my last post: The Wand of Frost is in the northwest corner of the mines map, not the northeast. It's in the hollow of an old, dead tree.
There is a suit of ankheg plate and a pearl lying in a farmer's field on the far west side of the Nashkel map. I think it's near a small pine tree at the edge of the field. The pixel to find it is very small, but clicking on the magnifying glass at the bottom right of the screen or pressing tab will highlight it. (I'm not sure how highlighting works on the mobile versions of the game.)
Thank you both, @JuliusBorisov and @BelgarathMTH .
I'll keep your advice in mind for tomorrow evening. Nothing new tonight, didn't have time to play and need to catch up on some sleep, busy day ahead.
Now it's getting complicated. I've found the Ankheg Plate and the pearl, but it's right there in a ploughed field, not the wilderness. I have no problem using the items I find in the forest, but this one? If I found something valuable on someone's property I would go to the owner, not take it with me.
Grrrr... I wish you hadn't told me, @BelgarathMTH ?.
I really think I have to leave it there. Bad conscience.
@Arvia, hmm, interesting roleplaying decision. I guess there really isn't any good reason for something that valuable to be buried out there. The game doesn't let you question the farmers about it. Can anyone make up a story about talking to the farmers about why there's buried treasure in their field, including a finely crafted suit of armor, that ends with it being okay for a paladin to take the armor?
Maybe the party saved their daughter from kobolds, and it was a reward from the grateful farmers? (In the original BG, there were kobolds menacing the farm in the introductory cutscene for Nashkel.)
@BelgarathMTH, I thought about something like that. But the houses are locked. Maybe I'll find a solution making up a story that they let me take the armor because I'll investigate the mines where their people die.
I hate breaking weapons. Twice in 5 min in the middle of the mines isn't fair. And Dynaheir failed to scribe "Identify" even with the Potion of Genius. Grrr.
Edit: *and* the Nashkel Temple made me pay 400gp for Raise Dead, and later at the temple in the FAI I saw it was only 200! Why?
@Arvia, Who were you trying to raise? The cost is usually 100 per level of the person being raised. If one time it was a second level person, and the other time it was a 4th level person, that would explain it. The cost shown will change according to which person is selected and their level.
I always carry several extra weapons against the breaking steel weapons. Wooden weapons like staves and clubs don't break.
Thalantyr should have two scrolls of Identify. Did you fail to scribe both of them? I always buy both of them before drinking a Potion of Genius, and also I buy both scrolls of Protection from Petrification for the same reason. Identify is a fairly common random dropped scroll from killed low level monsters too, and I save all of those until the drinking of the Potion of Genius and the scribing attempt.
If you've bought both of Thalantyr's Identify scrolls, and failed to scribe both of them after drinking a Potion of Genius, that may be justification for either a reload, or temporarily changing the difficulty to slider to "normal", then back up to "core rules."
Or, if you've had truly horrible luck and failed to scribe Identify after all that, you could choose to honorably adhere to the rules above and beyond the call of duty, and pay the 100 gold to identify every single magic item. Under pencil and paper tabletop rules, paladins are also supposed to tithe at least 10 percent of their party's gold income to their church. Roleplaying a paladin properly is *hard*, but I guess that's as it should be. Very few individuals have the resolve to do it. That's why paladins are supposed to be the shining lights and paragons of Good, setting an example for all of Faerun to follow.
@BelgarathMTH , sorry for being grumpy ?. You're right, trying to roleplay a paladin isn't supposed to be easy and I wanted a challenge.
It was just a bunch of bad luck at the same time. Nobody had dropped "Identify" and I really needed Dynaheir to fill her empty spellbook and had no money to identify at the temple. Then she scribed all the level 1 spells (with the potion of course), failed Identify, *and* I realized that Protection from Petrification was still missing.
After failing, I got Identify and Protection from Petrification from Thalantyr and kept them until she had to learn 2nd level, too, and it worked. I wouldn't have reloaded for Identify, because there is still the temple option.
I guess I'll have to go back to that priest of Helm in Nashkel and apologize, because I *might* have muttered something unpaladiny under my breath when I saw the different prices for Raise Dead ?. I had no idea that it depended on the level, I'm much more familiar with BG2 and there it wasn't necessary to go to the temple because of the higher spell levels.
I know about the 10% income rule, I've been doing that, I just didn't know how often I'm supposed to do it. Every time that I visit a temple seems a bit much, so I settled for a week or 10 days or something. And I only gave 10% of what I had at that moment, I bought strictly necessary equipment (meaning armor and weapons) first, because I suppose a god of warriors would be okay with me first doing my duty by equipping (and therefore protecting) my party members and myself properly, and then donate.
But of course when last time that meant giving 25 gp only, and a day later I found and earned 2000 gp, I went back to give more.
I guess that's okay? Or are 10 days too long?
Ajantis was the only one with a plain metal weapon remaining, because that +1 bastard sword at the Feldepost Inn was so expensive and we needed a few potionsof healing for the mines. He had been fine for a long time, had three swords, one broke against bandits on the way to the mines, I was too optimistic and hoped for the best, the other two broke on the 2nd level of the mines. So we went all the way back to Beregost and got that enchanted sword for him. And I haven't had to Raise him since he's wearing that really cool green Ankheg Plate ?.
I'll see if and when I find the time to report my progress this weekend, I feel like trying to write a little story again, not just listing what happened.
It's an unusually calm and quiet evening. If any traveler happens to pass by, looking to rest for a moment, feel invited to sit at my campfire, accept a mug of beer or tea from Imoen, and let me tell you how the story continues.
After leaving the area of High Hedge, Arvia decided to take the direct road to Nashkel, because the Temple of Lathander in Beregost was too far from their way to the mines. She took turns with Minsc again to carry their comatose ((I don't like the idea of carrying a "corpse" for several days)) friend Ajantis. Their progress was slow but unnoticed. She'd have to talk to Ajantis about storming into battle with creatures beyond his abilities, but she'd have to be careful not to hurt his pride. Approaching the first farmhouses close to Nashkel, Imoen reminded Arvia of their low budget, so they decided to rest for a moment and counted their money. They had little more than 100 gp and no more equipment to sell, and they couldn't wait much longer to Raise their friend. Imoen started to complain about it being Arvia's fault, never letting her take anything from people who let their money lie around in the open, always giving part of their money to the temples...
Their friends pretended to be occupied with something else while Arvia lectured Imoen about her duties, and that Ajantis would certainly rather die than be brought back to life with stolen money, and that she'd rather go to the Nashkel Mines all alone than see her young friend fall back into her old habits.
They were discussing loudly when they suddenly noticed a woman, apparently a farmer's wife, standing at the edge of a field and watching them. She came closer and apologized for overhearing their conversation.
She was living on the farm they had seen and asked Arvia to come to the edge of the ploughed field. "I think he would want you to have it", she said, and started to dig in the soft dirt, pulling out a large sack of cloth.
Then she told them how the farm had been attacked by a large horde of kobolds in the middle of the night some weeks ago, only to be saved by a stranger who had witnessed the attack on his way to Nashkel. He had fought off all the kobolds, but by their sheer numbers they had managed to wound him beyond help. He had died on their doorstep. They had buried the body, but had kept the armor and a pearl he had been carrying, in case somebody came searching for him. Then her husband had died of a fever and her son had gone to work in the mines, so she had buried the armor in the field, afraid of bandits or thieves.
"That young man reminds me of the warrior who saved our lifes, and I know you're going to investigate the mines. Please take the pearl to pay the temple for your friend, and the armor to protect him better. I wouldn't know what to do with treasures anyway, they'd only be taken by bandits. Go and find a way to keep our young men safe. My son is down there, too."
There was no way to refuse, so they accepted the gift and promised to go to the mines as soon as they had the necessary preparation.
After being Raised again, Ajantis refused the armor, of course, insisting that she should have it, but Arvia gently reminded him of the countless times that he had put himself in danger to protect her, and that she needed him alive and at her side. She told him that he'd either have to accept the armor or keep using a bow and promise her to stay out of melee battles. That convinced him.
They wanted to go to the Mines as soon as possible, but their new friend Dynaheir still hadn't found her spellbook, so she decided to drink a Potion of Genius and learn the spells from the scrolls she had collected. One scroll with a spell to identify magical items got destroyed in the process, and she still had very few spells remembered, so they decided to backtrack their way to the Gnoll Stronghold, explore in detail the areas that they had passed quickly to go to her rescue, and hope to find her spellbook.
First they went back to the xvart encampment, because Arvia remembered that cave with the bear where she had barely escaped with her life. There had been a chest that didn't look like anything the xvart might have constructed.
She remembered their last fight against a cave bear, but she had the feeling that she had gotten stronger and better at fighting. She still didn't want to risk anyone else, asked them to come after her only when called, and went into the cave alone.
No spellbook, but at least some useful items.
They proceeded carefully into the region were they had been attacked by ogres before, tiptoeing around, Imoen scouting ahead, when they were surprised by a bandit accompanied by some hobgoblins, who attacked them on sight. He had said something, but Arvia couldn't understand a word between the hobgoblins' shouts, and the battle was short.
They came closer to the river, but it didn't look like the bridge they had crossed last time before encountering the polar bear. Imoen scouted ahead again, glimpsed an ogre berserker blocking the bridge head, and three hobgoblin elite soldiers behind him, bows equipped, arrows dripping with some nasty green liquid. She lost her concentration, stumbled, and was noticed immediately. Arvia saw the hobgoblins draw their bows and the ogre berserker lifting his huge morning star and felt a burning rage in her chest.
Those monsters had hurt enough people! She lifted her sword and sprinted ahead, shouting to Torm for help. She blocked the ogre berserker's path in front of the bridge head and ordered the others to take down the archers from a distance.
((that felt good! I love my level 3 with 42 HP! I can *tank*!))
Ajantis had followed her, as usual, but his new armor seemed to protect him better. Arvia and Imoen had caught a poisened arrow, but Arvia still had one of Landrin's potions and Dynaheir saved Imoen with a quick spell. After tending to their wounds, they continued to explore the hills and stumbled into a small camp. A strange ogre talked to them about his lunch and then asked them to join him. As his food. They declined politely, but he insisted, and a fight was inevitable.
(I know this screenshot is childish but I felt like "heck, yes! Level 1: us running from the ogre. Level 3: ogre running from us!" )
They hadn't found the spellbook anywhere on the way between Nashkel and the Gnoll Stronghold, and they were losing precious time, so they decided to got to High Hedge again, buy some scrolls for Dynaheir (which she scribed successfully this time) with their newly earned money, and head back straight to the mines.
They got waylaid by bandits again on their way, and Ajantis broke a weapon, but he still had two swords left, so they decided to proceed. After talking to the owner of the mines, they entered and talked to the miners along the way. Most of them were afraid of demons in the dark, but it turned out there were actually kobolds around, using a suspicious liquid on the ore that was mined and killing the miners they met. They took samples of both for further examination and cleared the first two levels of the mines from all the kobolds, but they should have planned ahead more carefully, because both of Ajantis's swords broke in the same battle, he had to continue with his bare hand, and there were no spare weapons in the mines that he felt confident to use properly. Arvia could have kicked herself for being so careless, but there was nothing to be done, they had to go back all the way to Beregost, sell everything that wasn't strictly necessary, and buy that enchanted bastard sword from the Feldepost Inn, spending all the money they had collected on the way. Torm forgive her, she would have to give a bigger share of their money to the temple later, but they couldn't risk losing any more battles to broken weapons, and people in the mines were getting desperate.
Back in the lower levels of the mines, Imoen's skills saved them twice, because the kobolds or whoever was ordering them had set a few nasty traps along the way.
Oh, and they kept pets.
Deep down, they had to fight some stronger kobolds using fire arrows on them and then entered a small kind of building within the cave, where more kobolds awaited them, and where they freed a peculiar elven mage, who declared the world to be doomed and went on his way. Exploring the last room, they ran into a cleric of Cyric, who immediately summoned a horde of kobolds and skeletons with everyone surrounded and stuck between them. Then Arvia got hit by some spell and remembered nothing of the fight. When she came to her senses, the cleric was lying dead at her feet, but so were Dynaheir and Imoen, because the skeletons hadn't let any room to escape through the narrow hallway.
Branwen calmed her down and explained that it wasn't her fault, that she hadn't been herself under the influence of the spell, and that their friends' bodies were intact and could be taken to the temple. They quickly took the priest's letters and holy symbol as proof for his actions and means to find those behind his orders, but they had to leave several less important items behind to carry their friends and the most essential gear. Arvia went ahead to explore the area around to building, killed a ghoul and some oozes and discovered another exit. She decided that it was too dangerous to head into unknown territory, without Imoen's stealth and carrying two bodies, so they went back the long, but known and therefore safer, road back through the mines and to Nashkel. They would have to come back another day to explore the area further. They told the major that the mines were safe, gave him Mulahey's holy symbol as proof and went straight to the temple to get their companions Raised. ((that was 600 gp for 4th level Imoen and 400 gp for 3rd level Dynaheir!)) They couldn't afford Resurrection, and Branwen had only two healing spells remaining to restore their health enough to walk out of the temple, so they needed to rest as soon as possible.
Right there in front of the inn, in the broad daylight, a mage declared their certain death and attacked them immediately. Fortunately they were quick enough to kill him without trouble, found a note on his body which pointed them to the people behind the attack, and managed to rest for a while at the inn.
Arvia awoke after terrible nightmares, while Dynaheir had spent the night figuring out what kind of magical items they had taken from Mulahey.
Those boots led to serious discussions.
Arvia, Ajantis and Branwen adamantly refused to use them and wanted to take them to a temple to be kept safe, but Dynaheir hadn't sensed any remaining danger on them and explained how deadly lightning was in a magical battle, so they agreed to let her keep them, to better defend the others in case of a battle that required magic instead of steel.
Next stop: Beregost. They arrived in the middle of the night and went directly to Feldepost's Inn to confront Tranzig, Mulahey's contact. He seemed to be a mage of some power, but they knew how to fight him, and he begged for mercy. Arvia gave her word to accept his surrender, but unfortunately he seemed to be the same person who had trapped Branwen in stone, and nothing would stop her, not even when Tranzig panicked completely and Arvia tried to lead the group away. Branwen stayed behind and kept attacking him, and Minsc, angry and protective, supported her and Arvia had no chance to stop them.
Branwen wanted to celebrate their victory, but Arvia sent their friends ahead to talk to her in private. She was furious. "I had given him my word! I had accepted his surrender! It's my duty to my god and my conscience to fight evil, but I will NOT kill a man who begs for mercy, and I won't tolerate you doing that in my company, either!" Branwen didn't seem to be ashamed at all, she looked content with her deed. "He deserved it, and Tempus doesn't tolerate cowards! You serve your god, and I serve mine. My honor and my duty demanded it!" - "And my honor and my duty demand that I keep my word and show mercy to those who repent!"
They both stepped back for a moment and took a deep breath. This was not good. They needed to calm down and talk later. Branwen was right, both of them had followed their duty to their god and their conscience. But who was right? Or were they both wrong?
She felt that she had failed completely. She had given her word, and he was dead by her companion's hand. She picked up the note he had dropped and decided to take the valuable items (a scroll, a wand and some sort of ring) to the Temple of Lathander next to the village. She would have to think about Branwen later.
She handed the items to the priest, explained that they were meant to atone at least a bit for a grave mistake that she had made, and walked slowly back to Beregost to meet her companions.
She wished she could talk to a cleric of Torm, or a more experienced paladin. She knew that Ajantis, following Helm, had also told her once that he wouldn't kill a surrendering enemy, but that didn't help her with her bad conscience and her questions about what to do with Branwen.
She respected and liked the fierce young cleric, but she would always follow her god and her conscience first, as would Arvia herself, and even if they shared similar goals, their means of approaching them were very different and seemed incompatible. She hoped that she would find an answer to her questions. (@BelgarathMTH, a bit of advice for an inexperienced squire paladin?)
Party level: 3 for Arvia, Minsc and Dynaheir, 4 for the others.
Number of reloads: 1 (the ogre with the belt fetish south of the FIA)
Oops that got a lot longer than intended. I guess I got carried away.
Edited: Many times. Just typos and repetitions.
@Arvia , Wonderful storytelling! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. That was a brilliant story about how you got the ankheg plate! And you know, I never questioned before that the Boots of Grounding now have a name and a story attached that associate them with the evil god Talos. That's something Beamdog added for the EE, to give the magic items some flavor. They used to not have lore stories attached.
I'm very sympathetic to your problem with Branwen. Your alignments are incompatible. A quick search of the Forgotten Realms wiki doesn't show any association between Torm and Tempus. I saw one connection - Torm has a consort relationship with the Red Knight, (the goddess of strategy, planning, and tactics), who serves Tempus.
Right now, there are no other clerics of suitable alignment to serve you. Viconia is evil, and your reputation would drop two points just for taking her into your party. Branwen will start complaining that "These are not the actions of warrior-born!" when your reputation hits 19-20.
I think you have to take into consideration that this wizard you wanted to spare turned Branwen into stone. It's a pretty awful thing he did to her. You'll have to weigh your standards against justice for Branwen. Perhaps it was not the right thing to tell this evil man that you would let him go. He wouldn't hesitate to use Flesh to Stone on you or anyone else if he had another scroll with that monstrously evil spell. Sometimes in this game setting, we do have to serve as judge, jury, and executioner, because arrest, restraint, and imprisonment are simply not given as options.
But you did give your word, and Branwen countermanded your order.
(By the way, it is NPC Project that added this behavior for Branwen, and it needed to be added. In the vanilla game, Branwen doesn't even notice that you are talking to the wizard who turned her to stone.)
Once you get near the bottom of the Cloakwood mines, you will meet Yeslick, who is a dwarven fighter-cleric much more compatible with your alignment and your oaths as a paladin. He is also in need of rescuing. That would be the perfect time to tell Branwen to please turn back, because you need to help this dwarf. However, your character doesn't know any of that yet.
It's up to you whether you want to try to survive for a time without a cleric. It's doable with healing potions, but more difficult. You're about to face wyverns, giant spiders, and ettercaps.
I think this would be a very serious argument between the two of you. I'd consider not only how I was playing my character, but how she should be playing her character.
I'm not sure who you could replace her with right now, either. I don't think the good gods require people to commit suicide in the name of principles. It may be the greater good to keep Branwen with you so you can keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't commit any other chaotic acts. It's up to you how to proceed. I support any decision you make in this matter.
@BelgarathMTH , thank you ?.
At first I felt too shy to post my run in this thread at all, because I haven't written any text beyond e-mails or job applications since high school, and certainly not in English. But I've discovered that I actually like to invent some background story to my game and try to write it down. It's fun. ?
I'll think about a solution with Branwen. I don't think I can survive without a healer until I get Yeslick. I know that mage deserved to die, but did you see the dialogue choices in the screenshot above?
"No mercy for such as you!" is something I could imagine saying to people like Neb the child murderer, but it seemed a bit much in this case, especially because only a short time ago there was a dialogue with Ajantis about fighting evil, where he too had said that he'd never kill someone who surrendered. On the other hand, you're right about no chance to arrest and imprison.
Well, I'll have to think about it later, or tomorrow. Break's over, back to work.(failed a perception check at the turn of the month and ended up with two 24h Sundays in a row ?. Did I mention my real life wisdom score of 5?)
I hope you're feeling better and my tons of questions don't add to your stress.
@Arvia , I'm still under a good bit of job stress through next Sunday, but I'm good. Reading your posts and answering any questions that I can, or offering an opinion when asked, are welcome distractions.
I'm enjoying my down time with a nice, relaxing, low-stress game of Neverwinter Nights 2. That might be a game you would enjoy when you are ready to try a new game (assuming you've never played it.) It has lots and lots of voice-acted cutscene roleplay, and you can play your alignment and feel rewarded for it. The combat and character building are interesting and mildly challenging, without being stressfully difficult. The story is generic, but engaging and interesting. At least for me, the game never makes me feel like it's out to get me. It feels much more like the tabletop D&D experience I had as a teen than *ahem* certain other games that shall not be named here.
@Arvia , by the way, your written English is flawless. I'm curious how you developed such fluency in English. Is the German education system really that much better than the American, or did you live in England or America for a time?
@BelgarathMTH , I was going to ask you if you think I might like NWN, I have never played it. But at my slow pace, it will be a long journey from Candlekeep to Melissan, so I won't be playing another game soon.
Seriously? I thought I made lots of grammar errors. I don't know if our education system is better, I don't think so. I went to a normal public school and had English from 7th to 12th grade (first language was from 5th grade, but I had chosen Latin). I've never lived in an English speaking country, just worked for a month in a Scottish hospital as a student. I read a lot of books, and if I know the language, I read the original, not the German translation. Same with movies. Unfortunately, that means my active vocabulary is limited to the things I picked up from fantasy novels and Star Trek ?. I was really struggling to find the right words to properly express my thoughts in the religion and philosophy thread, for example.
To be fair, I should say that I seem to pick up languages easily if I'm exposed to them. I learned to speak Romanian (my husband's native language) and Spanish (did 8 months internship in Spain) quickly, though I don't write them very well. As a compensation, I can't remember numbers at all.
Have fun in Neverwinter. I'm going to Beregost now to see what I'm going to do about Branwen (if that hospital phone leaves me alone).If you ever travel to Baldur's Gate, leave a note where to meet you ?.
Comments
Condolences on your lost text. I like to click "Save Draft" down at the bottom of the screen while I'm composing longer posts on the forum.
Thanks for the nod in the story. You made me smile.
That Belt of Masculinity/Femininity is an infamous cursed item from the first edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. Rich Burlew even made a joke about it in early "Order of the Stick". Since a lot of teenage boys play D&D, you can just imagine the jokes they make among themselves about that belt, and have been doing so since the 1970's.
The original BG devs were making a wink and a nod to the original AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, and also to the long tradition of jokes. They also wanted to use it early in the game to teach new players that they should identify items before putting them on.
Apart from a few minor attacks by some xvart, gibberlings and a ghoul, a group of Flaming Fist Mercenaries mistook them for bandits and tried to arrest them, but somehow Arvia managed to convince them of their innocence and they arrived in Nashkel without further disturbances.
Jaheira insisted on seeing the mayor first, who asked them to investigate the Nashkel mines, where miners kept disappearing and strange rumours about monsters in the depth had started.
Afterwards, they went straight to the inn to rest for a while, but were attacked by yet another assassin immediately after entering.
Fortunately, having no chance to go around stealing any longer, Imoen seemed to have spent her time practising with her Wand of Magic Missiles and managed to interrupt every spell the assassin tried to cast on them, so that the fighters had a chance to defend themselves and kill their attacker.
The following day they met a ranger named Minsc in the village of Nashkel, who asked their help to rescue his friend, a mage called Dynaheir, who had been captured by gnolls. They also learned the sad story of Captain Brage and went to the carnival next to the village to find out more about the rumours in the region. Imoen's eyes lit up at all the colourful tents, but Ajantis helped Arvia to keep an eye on her immature little friend, and they had no money to spend anyway.
Arvia didn't want to waste time, but was utterly disgusted when offered a scroll for 500gp to release a petrified young woman. What did these people consider entertainment?
Before she could talk some sense into the owner of the scroll, Jaheira decided to take the matter in her own hands, beat him senseless with her club and grabbed the scroll.
She freed the woman, who thanked them and introduced herself as Branwen. While Arvia respected the druid as Gorion's friend and understood (and even shared) her anger, she didn't approve of her methods, and the two of them entered into a heated discussion about justice. Ajantis went to find some equipment for Branwen, who was all alone and wanted to travel for a while in their company, but Arvia and Jaheira came to the conclusion that although they respected each other, it would be best to go separate ways, at least for a while. So she and her husband wished them well and left the group, promising to leave notice in the Friendly Arm Inn in case they wanted to meet again in the future.
With Branwen equipped and rested, the group set out into the direction where Minsc expected to find his friend.
Arvia was hurt by Jaheira's behaviour and wondered if Gorion would agree with her, but now was not the time for doubts and worries.
They headed west and came into a mountainous area, where it would be difficult to see any approaching attackers. Arvia hadn't forgotten the cleric's advice about keeping their distance from enemies until they were more experienced, so they trod carefully with their bows equipped. Imoen tried to scout ahead but wasn't very good at it, and suddenly they found themselves in the middle of a large group of xvart, accompanied by a fierce cave bear. They tried to flee, but they were surrounded and saw no chance but to fight their way out. Xvart hadn't seemed too dangerous until now, but their numbers were overwhelming and the bear's claws took Ajantis down before they could do anything about it. The xvart got distracted for a moment and they had to take the chance to escape from between the rocks into open area. They were followed of course, and Minsc was already severely wounded, but they managed to kill the bear and the remaining xvart.
Their attempt to recover Ajantis' body was interrupted by even more angry xvart, and after killing them all, Arvia saw, horrified, that they were in an encampment of some sort. Had they slaughtered a whole village of innocents who had only thought it necessary to defend themselves against intruders?
Minsc had to carry Ajantis, and Arvia was so tormented by her conscience that she lead them into the wrong direction and stumbled into a dark cave, where she faced another bear. This time, they managed to escape and the bear didn't follow them.
Imoen reminded her that they needed money to Raise Ajantis at the temple in Nashkel, and asked her to reconsider her decision of leaving the winter wolf behind that had attacked them along the way. The merchant in Nashkel had offered good money for a winter wolf pelt, but Arvia had been disgusted at the thought of hunting animals for their pelts. They did hunt for food, of course, but winter wolf meat wasn't even edible.
However, saving the life of a friend was more important, and she thanked Imoen for the good idea. She began to see her friend in a different light. She really seemed to start thinking and planning ahead instead of behaving like a child. They went to get the pelt and took turns carrying it and Ajantis back to Nashkel.
After successfully restoring Ajantis' life and health at the temple, Minsc reminded them with growing impatience to get back and find Dynaheir as soon as possible. Arvia sent her friends ahead to the inn to eat and rest. She still felt terrible about eradicating that whole xvart village, doubted her decision to split up with Khalid and Jaheira, and wanted to be alone for a while.
Reloads: 1 (the ogre with the belt fetish south of the FIA)
And I'm Level 2, at last! 28 HP, yay!
And I was glad to find out that it was an encampment of xvart raiders, not a village.
Now it's time to hunt some gnolls.
The road had been a dangerous one. Arvia hoped that some day she'd get the chance to thank that cleric who had taught them how to handle strong and dangerous enemies. Without his helpful advice they'd be long dead.
She usually liked to write a detailed report into her journal every evening, to reflect on everything that had happened and organize her thoughts, but time was short, they had to rescue Minsc's friend, so she just scribbled down a few short notes about the dangers they had encountered between Nashkel and the Gnoll Stronghold:
- a screaming man said he was followed by a huge bear. We offered help, and learned that polar bears are very dangerous creatures. That was close.
- as if ogres weren't enough, we were attacked by an ogre berserker. Our strategy worked, but it involved even more running and critical wounds than fighting a "normal" ogre.
- no matter how tired your companions are, don't try to sleep in ogre territory
- don't underestimate a horde of wild dogs
- ogre berserkers are *very* dangerous. Had to carry Branwen back to Nashkel temple, almost lost Ajantis, too.
- got waylaid by gnolls on the way back.
- have to get into the Stronghold and hope that Minsc's friend is still alive. He's angry because it took so long to get here, but we couldn't let Branwen die, either. I hope we're not too late to save Dynaheir.
Reloads: 1 (the ogre with the belt fetish south of the FAI)
That was close with those bears! And ogre berserkers! I'm glad you've learned how to manage to survive those kinds of encounters.
You didn't mention the hobgoblin elites on the north bridge. You avoided them, I hope, or else had enough antidotes to deal with their poison arrows. Jaheira will have access to Slow Poison when she gets second level spells, which can help.
Now that you have Branwen, I advise keeping at least one first level spell slot filled with Remove Fear, and the first thing she does when you see a mage should be to immediately cast Remove Fear, because the first thing they're going to be doing is casting Horror. I recommend the rest of her first level slots be filled with Command. That spell can drop ogres and ogre berserkers (and other dangerous enemies) for one round, which is usually enough time to kill them or almost kill them with arrows. The Command spell can trivialize some of the worst encounters for level 1-3 players.
As soon as you can afford the Wand of Sleep from Thalantyr, the Sleep spell can also be an "I win" button for many low level encounters.
Congratulations on getting this far with no more reloads. I hope the gnoll stronghold map goes as well. I *really* hope Minsc's timer doesn't go off on you, because he won't just leave if it does, he'll go nuts and attack you. Unless the NPC Project changed that. I haven't used it in a long time.
I had no idea about the hobgoblin elite. And I'll never be able to buy any good equipment if I keep spending all my money on Raise Dead ?.
About your advice for Branwen's spells, do you really propose to walk around without any healing spells memorized, or didn't you see that I split up with Khalid and Jaheira to make room for the others?
I will use Remove Fear of course, but I think the rest of the slots will be healing spells until I find or can buy more potions. And once she gets level 2 spells I can use Hold Person, too. Didn't know how useful Command is, thank you. I'll keep that in mind once Cure Light Wounds gets out of fashion.
I know about Minsc's timer, I opened a thread because of it during my first week here (back then when I registered. Wow, that was only a month ago), that's why I was so nervous when we had to go back to Nashkel to Raise Branwen.
But he's fine, and we're in the gnoll map.
Progress is slow in my game because the time between "kids asleep" and "me asleep" is kind of limited. And because it takes much more time to clear a map when you're careful and don't know what to expect.
I really like the minimal reload concept. If my time to play is very limited, at least it should feel right.
Your reports are nice to read, and you're doing alright!
@JuliusBorisov thank you. I'm not angry at all, this was my own choice after all.
If I didn't like it, I'd stop playing this way. But once I've smelled a challenge, I have to try it...
And it's a perfect distraction after a tough day.
The Gnoll Stronghold was no problem, 24 HP at level 2 seem to be enough to tank ogrillons, and although I don't use unidentified items and will have to wait until Nashkel, those Gauntlets of Dexterity might protect Ajantis from needing CPR, I mean Raise Dead, after every battle.
Gnolls don't seem to be too dangerous, apart from their habit to sneak around you and attack the weak party members. We rescued Dynaheir, but is there really a spell book somewhere?
The rest of the map was good for a couple of XP and some gold. We avoided the same way back and went to the Cloud Peak map, got attacked by a winter wolf and kept the pelt this time, because we really need to buy some better equipment.
Helped the dryad rescue her tree, of course, and saved the dead cat.
I didn't like these dialogue choices.
I didn't want to bribe them, but the other two options were either to lie or to insult them without reason, so I decided to pay the 50 gp and let them leave.
We got back to Beregost, sold what we didn't need, got plate mail for Minsc and Branwen, too, and +1 weapons for half of us (couldn't afford more), then got those 4 Potions of Genius from Gellana Mirrorshade and a few Elixier of Health.
Went to High Hedge to talk to the mage, noticed that we don't have enough money anyway, and then Ajantis got killed again by a ghast. *sigh*
I decided to call it a night. He'll be carried to the temple (third time I think) tomorrow, then we'll try our luck with Bassilius ( I hope he won't cause my second reload. Any strategical advice on him, @BelgarathMTH ?) and proceed to the Nashkel Mines after that.
Most of us are level 3 now. Branwen has got 2nd level spells, but Dynaheir still has got only level 1 spells, so I didn't make her scribe any scrolls yet. Magic missile it is, until then. Does her spell book exist somewhere?
Reloads: 1 (the ogre with the belt fetish south of the FIA)
On Ajantis and the ghast: Did you try to tank the ghast and get him killed to paralyzing touch? Do *not* tank ghouls or ghasts with any character but yourself (and you only because you're an undead hunter and have immunity to the paralyzing touch). *Nobody* and I mean *nobody* who isn't hold immune should *ever* tank a ghoul or a ghast, under *any* circumstances. They are a "kite and kill at range" enemy, even for high level characters. If you or your cleric can turn them, that is very helpful. (Apologies if I'm telling you stuff you already know, but you do know that being Held negates all AC and guarantees every enemy roll is a hit, right?)
Otherwise, you just have to get AC as high (or really in this game, as low) as possible. I appreciate your holding off on immediately equipping the Gauntlets of Dexterity on Ajantis, but doing so as soon as you can get them identified should be very helpful. Also, get both you and him into full plate as soon as possible. And try to get him a Ring of Protection +1.
Branwen, you, or Ajantis would be very much safer using Ankheg Plate. Do you know where to go get that in Nashkel, or do you consider it cheating to collect the "Easter Egg" items? There's also a free Ring of Protection +1 in a rock north of the Lion's Way marker on the map between Candlekeep and the FAI.
If you didn't know, there's also a Ring of Wizardry just southeast of the FAI that will give Dynaheir a whole bunch more spell slots. And, there's a Wand of Frost in a tree at the far northwest corner of the Nashkel Mines map, but that wand is very dangerous to use in a party. It's very powerful, but you have to make sure no friends are in the way of its cone effect.
You are costing AJ at least 1 AC by roleplaying that he has to use that shield he gets from the NPC Project. But, I appreciate that you want to do that.
Make sure you are having people drink healing potions as soon as they are at no less than one half their health. Don't wait until they're desperately low and one more hit will kill them. Healing spells are too slow to cast to be of consistent help during combat. Don't try to hope for a healing spell to go off before the fatal blow happens. Drink a healing potion. That's what they're for. (Apologies if that is obvious and you've already been doing that.)
I've never been able to solve the Dynaheir spellbook quest from the NPC Project. Maybe somebody else can help you with that. I think, if I remember correctly, it's somewhere on that map to the north with the polar bear and the bridges and the ogres and hobgoblins, but there's also a bunch of conditions on getting the resolution to trigger.
EDIT: It might go without saying, but you do have AJ wearing a helmet, don't you? You're not getting him killed to critical hits? I know he looks pretty with his long, flowing, blond hair, but he really needs to wear a helmet.
Old alternate AJ portrait:
No, I didn't know that. He was already wearing the Gauntlets of Dexterity and had AC -3 like me. I had no idea or I would have tanked the ghast alone.
If it's about game mechanics that aren't 100% obvious, it's usually safe to assume that I don't know.
Okay I think I'm not going to actively search for Dynaheir's Spellbook. Didn't know it was an NPC Project thing.
No, I think it's okay to collect Easter Egg items as long as they don't require impossible knowledge to find them. It's difficult enough to play for a beginner. I know you can let the smith in Beregost make Ankheg Plate if you kill one and get the shell, I think. But I'm not confident I can kill one. Or did you mean another way of getting Ankheg Plate?
I know it costs him 1 AC, and I don't want to exaggerate, but I just can't imagine Ajantis discarding his family shield for another -1 in AC.
You know, when he offered to carry some of my equipment, I really had to laugh because I wished I could have reminded him how I had to carry his dead body including armor and everything back to the temple.
That portrait is much prettier than the actual one. (very realistic hairstyle for someone fighting and traveling and sleeping in the forest *cough*) And looks even younger.
Dang! I really wanted to read his romance dialogues, but now I don't know if I can. I can't possibly roleplay flirting with a boy who looks 20 years younger than me!
EDIT: Stop apologizing for telling me things that might be obvious. Some are, but a lot of them aren't, and I really appreciate how much I'm learning from reading your posts. Otherwise, my reload counter would probably be at 20.
@Arvia Did you read manuals about the game? I recommend to check them in your Manuals folder (from the main game folder).
I didn't even think to look for a manual in the folder (android).irl: WIS 5!
*cough rtfm cough*
Sorry for asking so many dumb questions without reading somewhere else first
No need to feel sorry. Asking questions is exactly what this forum is for. Also, what I meant by that advice was - "you'd feel yourself better and more knowledgeable about the rules, spells, and such", not "stop asking".
Going to the mines sounds like a good plan.
There is a suit of ankheg plate and a pearl lying in a farmer's field on the far west side of the Nashkel map. I think it's near a small pine tree at the edge of the field. The pixel to find it is very small, but clicking on the magnifying glass at the bottom right of the screen or pressing tab will highlight it. (I'm not sure how highlighting works on the mobile versions of the game.)
I'll keep your advice in mind for tomorrow evening. Nothing new tonight, didn't have time to play and need to catch up on some sleep, busy day ahead.
Grrrr... I wish you hadn't told me, @BelgarathMTH ?.
I really think I have to leave it there. Bad conscience.
Maybe the party saved their daughter from kobolds, and it was a reward from the grateful farmers? (In the original BG, there were kobolds menacing the farm in the introductory cutscene for Nashkel.)
Edit: *and* the Nashkel Temple made me pay 400gp for Raise Dead, and later at the temple in the FAI I saw it was only 200! Why?
I always carry several extra weapons against the breaking steel weapons. Wooden weapons like staves and clubs don't break.
Thalantyr should have two scrolls of Identify. Did you fail to scribe both of them? I always buy both of them before drinking a Potion of Genius, and also I buy both scrolls of Protection from Petrification for the same reason. Identify is a fairly common random dropped scroll from killed low level monsters too, and I save all of those until the drinking of the Potion of Genius and the scribing attempt.
If you've bought both of Thalantyr's Identify scrolls, and failed to scribe both of them after drinking a Potion of Genius, that may be justification for either a reload, or temporarily changing the difficulty to slider to "normal", then back up to "core rules."
Or, if you've had truly horrible luck and failed to scribe Identify after all that, you could choose to honorably adhere to the rules above and beyond the call of duty, and pay the 100 gold to identify every single magic item. Under pencil and paper tabletop rules, paladins are also supposed to tithe at least 10 percent of their party's gold income to their church. Roleplaying a paladin properly is *hard*, but I guess that's as it should be. Very few individuals have the resolve to do it. That's why paladins are supposed to be the shining lights and paragons of Good, setting an example for all of Faerun to follow.
You might enjoy watching some of this guy's roleplayed paladin "Let's Play" episodes, when you can find the time:
It was just a bunch of bad luck at the same time. Nobody had dropped "Identify" and I really needed Dynaheir to fill her empty spellbook and had no money to identify at the temple. Then she scribed all the level 1 spells (with the potion of course), failed Identify, *and* I realized that Protection from Petrification was still missing.
After failing, I got Identify and Protection from Petrification from Thalantyr and kept them until she had to learn 2nd level, too, and it worked. I wouldn't have reloaded for Identify, because there is still the temple option.
I guess I'll have to go back to that priest of Helm in Nashkel and apologize, because I *might* have muttered something unpaladiny under my breath when I saw the different prices for Raise Dead ?. I had no idea that it depended on the level, I'm much more familiar with BG2 and there it wasn't necessary to go to the temple because of the higher spell levels.
I know about the 10% income rule, I've been doing that, I just didn't know how often I'm supposed to do it. Every time that I visit a temple seems a bit much, so I settled for a week or 10 days or something. And I only gave 10% of what I had at that moment, I bought strictly necessary equipment (meaning armor and weapons) first, because I suppose a god of warriors would be okay with me first doing my duty by equipping (and therefore protecting) my party members and myself properly, and then donate.
But of course when last time that meant giving 25 gp only, and a day later I found and earned 2000 gp, I went back to give more.
I guess that's okay? Or are 10 days too long?
Ajantis was the only one with a plain metal weapon remaining, because that +1 bastard sword at the Feldepost Inn was so expensive and we needed a few potionsof healing for the mines. He had been fine for a long time, had three swords, one broke against bandits on the way to the mines, I was too optimistic and hoped for the best, the other two broke on the 2nd level of the mines. So we went all the way back to Beregost and got that enchanted sword for him. And I haven't had to Raise him since he's wearing that really cool green Ankheg Plate ?.
I'll see if and when I find the time to report my progress this weekend, I feel like trying to write a little story again, not just listing what happened.
After leaving the area of High Hedge, Arvia decided to take the direct road to Nashkel, because the Temple of Lathander in Beregost was too far from their way to the mines. She took turns with Minsc again to carry their comatose ((I don't like the idea of carrying a "corpse" for several days)) friend Ajantis. Their progress was slow but unnoticed. She'd have to talk to Ajantis about storming into battle with creatures beyond his abilities, but she'd have to be careful not to hurt his pride. Approaching the first farmhouses close to Nashkel, Imoen reminded Arvia of their low budget, so they decided to rest for a moment and counted their money. They had little more than 100 gp and no more equipment to sell, and they couldn't wait much longer to Raise their friend. Imoen started to complain about it being Arvia's fault, never letting her take anything from people who let their money lie around in the open, always giving part of their money to the temples...
Their friends pretended to be occupied with something else while Arvia lectured Imoen about her duties, and that Ajantis would certainly rather die than be brought back to life with stolen money, and that she'd rather go to the Nashkel Mines all alone than see her young friend fall back into her old habits.
They were discussing loudly when they suddenly noticed a woman, apparently a farmer's wife, standing at the edge of a field and watching them. She came closer and apologized for overhearing their conversation.
She was living on the farm they had seen and asked Arvia to come to the edge of the ploughed field. "I think he would want you to have it", she said, and started to dig in the soft dirt, pulling out a large sack of cloth.
Then she told them how the farm had been attacked by a large horde of kobolds in the middle of the night some weeks ago, only to be saved by a stranger who had witnessed the attack on his way to Nashkel. He had fought off all the kobolds, but by their sheer numbers they had managed to wound him beyond help. He had died on their doorstep. They had buried the body, but had kept the armor and a pearl he had been carrying, in case somebody came searching for him. Then her husband had died of a fever and her son had gone to work in the mines, so she had buried the armor in the field, afraid of bandits or thieves.
"That young man reminds me of the warrior who saved our lifes, and I know you're going to investigate the mines. Please take the pearl to pay the temple for your friend, and the armor to protect him better. I wouldn't know what to do with treasures anyway, they'd only be taken by bandits. Go and find a way to keep our young men safe. My son is down there, too."
There was no way to refuse, so they accepted the gift and promised to go to the mines as soon as they had the necessary preparation.
After being Raised again, Ajantis refused the armor, of course, insisting that she should have it, but Arvia gently reminded him of the countless times that he had put himself in danger to protect her, and that she needed him alive and at her side. She told him that he'd either have to accept the armor or keep using a bow and promise her to stay out of melee battles. That convinced him.
They wanted to go to the Mines as soon as possible, but their new friend Dynaheir still hadn't found her spellbook, so she decided to drink a Potion of Genius and learn the spells from the scrolls she had collected. One scroll with a spell to identify magical items got destroyed in the process, and she still had very few spells remembered, so they decided to backtrack their way to the Gnoll Stronghold, explore in detail the areas that they had passed quickly to go to her rescue, and hope to find her spellbook.
First they went back to the xvart encampment, because Arvia remembered that cave with the bear where she had barely escaped with her life. There had been a chest that didn't look like anything the xvart might have constructed.
She remembered their last fight against a cave bear, but she had the feeling that she had gotten stronger and better at fighting. She still didn't want to risk anyone else, asked them to come after her only when called, and went into the cave alone.
No spellbook, but at least some useful items.
They proceeded carefully into the region were they had been attacked by ogres before, tiptoeing around, Imoen scouting ahead, when they were surprised by a bandit accompanied by some hobgoblins, who attacked them on sight. He had said something, but Arvia couldn't understand a word between the hobgoblins' shouts, and the battle was short.
They came closer to the river, but it didn't look like the bridge they had crossed last time before encountering the polar bear. Imoen scouted ahead again, glimpsed an ogre berserker blocking the bridge head, and three hobgoblin elite soldiers behind him, bows equipped, arrows dripping with some nasty green liquid. She lost her concentration, stumbled, and was noticed immediately. Arvia saw the hobgoblins draw their bows and the ogre berserker lifting his huge morning star and felt a burning rage in her chest.
Those monsters had hurt enough people! She lifted her sword and sprinted ahead, shouting to Torm for help. She blocked the ogre berserker's path in front of the bridge head and ordered the others to take down the archers from a distance.
Ajantis had followed her, as usual, but his new armor seemed to protect him better. Arvia and Imoen had caught a poisened arrow, but Arvia still had one of Landrin's potions and Dynaheir saved Imoen with a quick spell. After tending to their wounds, they continued to explore the hills and stumbled into a small camp. A strange ogre talked to them about his lunch and then asked them to join him. As his food. They declined politely, but he insisted, and a fight was inevitable.
(I know this screenshot is childish but I felt like "heck, yes! Level 1: us running from the ogre. Level 3: ogre running from us!"
They hadn't found the spellbook anywhere on the way between Nashkel and the Gnoll Stronghold, and they were losing precious time, so they decided to got to High Hedge again, buy some scrolls for Dynaheir (which she scribed successfully this time) with their newly earned money, and head back straight to the mines.
They got waylaid by bandits again on their way, and Ajantis broke a weapon, but he still had two swords left, so they decided to proceed. After talking to the owner of the mines, they entered and talked to the miners along the way. Most of them were afraid of demons in the dark, but it turned out there were actually kobolds around, using a suspicious liquid on the ore that was mined and killing the miners they met. They took samples of both for further examination and cleared the first two levels of the mines from all the kobolds, but they should have planned ahead more carefully, because both of Ajantis's swords broke in the same battle, he had to continue with his bare hand, and there were no spare weapons in the mines that he felt confident to use properly. Arvia could have kicked herself for being so careless, but there was nothing to be done, they had to go back all the way to Beregost, sell everything that wasn't strictly necessary, and buy that enchanted bastard sword from the Feldepost Inn, spending all the money they had collected on the way. Torm forgive her, she would have to give a bigger share of their money to the temple later, but they couldn't risk losing any more battles to broken weapons, and people in the mines were getting desperate.
Back in the lower levels of the mines, Imoen's skills saved them twice, because the kobolds or whoever was ordering them had set a few nasty traps along the way.
Oh, and they kept pets.
Deep down, they had to fight some stronger kobolds using fire arrows on them and then entered a small kind of building within the cave, where more kobolds awaited them, and where they freed a peculiar elven mage, who declared the world to be doomed and went on his way. Exploring the last room, they ran into a cleric of Cyric, who immediately summoned a horde of kobolds and skeletons with everyone surrounded and stuck between them. Then Arvia got hit by some spell and remembered nothing of the fight. When she came to her senses, the cleric was lying dead at her feet, but so were Dynaheir and Imoen, because the skeletons hadn't let any room to escape through the narrow hallway.
Branwen calmed her down and explained that it wasn't her fault, that she hadn't been herself under the influence of the spell, and that their friends' bodies were intact and could be taken to the temple. They quickly took the priest's letters and holy symbol as proof for his actions and means to find those behind his orders, but they had to leave several less important items behind to carry their friends and the most essential gear. Arvia went ahead to explore the area around to building, killed a ghoul and some oozes and discovered another exit. She decided that it was too dangerous to head into unknown territory, without Imoen's stealth and carrying two bodies, so they went back the long, but known and therefore safer, road back through the mines and to Nashkel. They would have to come back another day to explore the area further. They told the major that the mines were safe, gave him Mulahey's holy symbol as proof and went straight to the temple to get their companions Raised. ((that was 600 gp for 4th level Imoen and 400 gp for 3rd level Dynaheir!)) They couldn't afford Resurrection, and Branwen had only two healing spells remaining to restore their health enough to walk out of the temple, so they needed to rest as soon as possible.
Right there in front of the inn, in the broad daylight, a mage declared their certain death and attacked them immediately. Fortunately they were quick enough to kill him without trouble, found a note on his body which pointed them to the people behind the attack, and managed to rest for a while at the inn.
Arvia awoke after terrible nightmares, while Dynaheir had spent the night figuring out what kind of magical items they had taken from Mulahey.
Those boots led to serious discussions.
Arvia, Ajantis and Branwen adamantly refused to use them and wanted to take them to a temple to be kept safe, but Dynaheir hadn't sensed any remaining danger on them and explained how deadly lightning was in a magical battle, so they agreed to let her keep them, to better defend the others in case of a battle that required magic instead of steel.
Next stop: Beregost. They arrived in the middle of the night and went directly to Feldepost's Inn to confront Tranzig, Mulahey's contact. He seemed to be a mage of some power, but they knew how to fight him, and he begged for mercy. Arvia gave her word to accept his surrender, but unfortunately he seemed to be the same person who had trapped Branwen in stone, and nothing would stop her, not even when Tranzig panicked completely and Arvia tried to lead the group away. Branwen stayed behind and kept attacking him, and Minsc, angry and protective, supported her and Arvia had no chance to stop them.
Branwen wanted to celebrate their victory, but Arvia sent their friends ahead to talk to her in private. She was furious. "I had given him my word! I had accepted his surrender! It's my duty to my god and my conscience to fight evil, but I will NOT kill a man who begs for mercy, and I won't tolerate you doing that in my company, either!" Branwen didn't seem to be ashamed at all, she looked content with her deed. "He deserved it, and Tempus doesn't tolerate cowards! You serve your god, and I serve mine. My honor and my duty demanded it!" - "And my honor and my duty demand that I keep my word and show mercy to those who repent!"
They both stepped back for a moment and took a deep breath. This was not good. They needed to calm down and talk later. Branwen was right, both of them had followed their duty to their god and their conscience. But who was right? Or were they both wrong?
She felt that she had failed completely. She had given her word, and he was dead by her companion's hand. She picked up the note he had dropped and decided to take the valuable items (a scroll, a wand and some sort of ring) to the Temple of Lathander next to the village. She would have to think about Branwen later.
She handed the items to the priest, explained that they were meant to atone at least a bit for a grave mistake that she had made, and walked slowly back to Beregost to meet her companions.
She wished she could talk to a cleric of Torm, or a more experienced paladin. She knew that Ajantis, following Helm, had also told her once that he wouldn't kill a surrendering enemy, but that didn't help her with her bad conscience and her questions about what to do with Branwen.
She respected and liked the fierce young cleric, but she would always follow her god and her conscience first, as would Arvia herself, and even if they shared similar goals, their means of approaching them were very different and seemed incompatible. She hoped that she would find an answer to her questions. (@BelgarathMTH, a bit of advice for an inexperienced squire paladin?)
Party level: 3 for Arvia, Minsc and Dynaheir, 4 for the others.
Number of reloads: 1 (the ogre with the belt fetish south of the FIA)
Oops that got a lot longer than intended. I guess I got carried away.
Edited: Many times. Just typos and repetitions.
I'm very sympathetic to your problem with Branwen. Your alignments are incompatible. A quick search of the Forgotten Realms wiki doesn't show any association between Torm and Tempus. I saw one connection - Torm has a consort relationship with the Red Knight, (the goddess of strategy, planning, and tactics), who serves Tempus.
Right now, there are no other clerics of suitable alignment to serve you. Viconia is evil, and your reputation would drop two points just for taking her into your party. Branwen will start complaining that "These are not the actions of warrior-born!" when your reputation hits 19-20.
I think you have to take into consideration that this wizard you wanted to spare turned Branwen into stone. It's a pretty awful thing he did to her. You'll have to weigh your standards against justice for Branwen. Perhaps it was not the right thing to tell this evil man that you would let him go. He wouldn't hesitate to use Flesh to Stone on you or anyone else if he had another scroll with that monstrously evil spell. Sometimes in this game setting, we do have to serve as judge, jury, and executioner, because arrest, restraint, and imprisonment are simply not given as options.
But you did give your word, and Branwen countermanded your order.
(By the way, it is NPC Project that added this behavior for Branwen, and it needed to be added. In the vanilla game, Branwen doesn't even notice that you are talking to the wizard who turned her to stone.)
Once you get near the bottom of the Cloakwood mines, you will meet Yeslick, who is a dwarven fighter-cleric much more compatible with your alignment and your oaths as a paladin. He is also in need of rescuing. That would be the perfect time to tell Branwen to please turn back, because you need to help this dwarf. However, your character doesn't know any of that yet.
It's up to you whether you want to try to survive for a time without a cleric. It's doable with healing potions, but more difficult. You're about to face wyverns, giant spiders, and ettercaps.
I think this would be a very serious argument between the two of you. I'd consider not only how I was playing my character, but how she should be playing her character.
I'm not sure who you could replace her with right now, either. I don't think the good gods require people to commit suicide in the name of principles. It may be the greater good to keep Branwen with you so you can keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't commit any other chaotic acts. It's up to you how to proceed. I support any decision you make in this matter.
At first I felt too shy to post my run in this thread at all, because I haven't written any text beyond e-mails or job applications since high school, and certainly not in English. But I've discovered that I actually like to invent some background story to my game and try to write it down. It's fun. ?
I'll think about a solution with Branwen. I don't think I can survive without a healer until I get Yeslick. I know that mage deserved to die, but did you see the dialogue choices in the screenshot above?
"No mercy for such as you!" is something I could imagine saying to people like Neb the child murderer, but it seemed a bit much in this case, especially because only a short time ago there was a dialogue with Ajantis about fighting evil, where he too had said that he'd never kill someone who surrendered. On the other hand, you're right about no chance to arrest and imprison.
Well, I'll have to think about it later, or tomorrow. Break's over, back to work.(failed a perception check at the turn of the month and ended up with two 24h Sundays in a row ?. Did I mention my real life wisdom score of 5?)
I hope you're feeling better and my tons of questions don't add to your stress.
I'm enjoying my down time with a nice, relaxing, low-stress game of Neverwinter Nights 2. That might be a game you would enjoy when you are ready to try a new game (assuming you've never played it.) It has lots and lots of voice-acted cutscene roleplay, and you can play your alignment and feel rewarded for it. The combat and character building are interesting and mildly challenging, without being stressfully difficult. The story is generic, but engaging and interesting. At least for me, the game never makes me feel like it's out to get me. It feels much more like the tabletop D&D experience I had as a teen than *ahem* certain other games that shall not be named here.
Seriously? I thought I made lots of grammar errors. I don't know if our education system is better, I don't think so. I went to a normal public school and had English from 7th to 12th grade (first language was from 5th grade, but I had chosen Latin). I've never lived in an English speaking country, just worked for a month in a Scottish hospital as a student. I read a lot of books, and if I know the language, I read the original, not the German translation. Same with movies. Unfortunately, that means my active vocabulary is limited to the things I picked up from fantasy novels and Star Trek ?. I was really struggling to find the right words to properly express my thoughts in the religion and philosophy thread, for example.
To be fair, I should say that I seem to pick up languages easily if I'm exposed to them. I learned to speak Romanian (my husband's native language) and Spanish (did 8 months internship in Spain) quickly, though I don't write them very well. As a compensation, I can't remember numbers at all.
Have fun in Neverwinter. I'm going to Beregost now to see what I'm going to do about Branwen (if that hospital phone leaves me alone).If you ever travel to Baldur's Gate, leave a note where to meet you ?.