A Persperctive to Dorn IL-Khan´s Quest in BG1:EE

Tarlugn

Hey´all!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feud

I had a hunch about this while playing the quest, but what dawned to me way later was
some weird realization that I´ve done wrong helping a convict on his people-to-X list.

What about you, have you done this at all?

ThacoBell

Yes, and I did as a good aligned character too. The people on Dorn's list are some very dangerous criminals, being responsible for the wholesale slaughter of at least one community. Taking them out made the sword coast safer, and I was able to keep an eye on Dorn and make sure his bloodlust was channeled in productive directions. We got along pretty well too, he respected charname's strength enough to not complain about my do goodiness. Sadly, we were forced to kill him when he couldn't be talked out of slaughtering a wedding party some months later.

Tarlugn

Hmpf. I had potrayed in my mind that D killed the whole village people. The white wedding was amusing enough, so we left without hassle, and after our far wanderings toehter, we slew the patron, and thus he fell into Minscue-ness, without Boo. The likeness was taxing to my master plan which needed lil riggin here and there, too abd I ended up in Wacther´s Keep or Hell Trial 2, and I find my motivation gone, when dying like some sidekick to some trash mobs which I lst time wiped without thinking ( yay, barbarian rocks

ThacoBell

The plan to raze the village was Simmeon's and the whole band took part. Dorn was just the scapegoat, hence his vendetta.

tbone1

Tarlugn said:

Hmpf. I had potrayed in my mind that D killed the whole village people.

So help,me, since I first read that line, I had this image of Dorn marching into a YMCA and killing a studio disco band from the late 70s.

Tarlugn

Some monsters couldn´t be slain.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=yo4glASbEh4

Doing something in cold blood for someone, even being framed, should raise an eyebrow or two.

Gallowglass

I disagree, @Tarlugn.

In RL, the justice system (at least in most places) positively demands that its agents act in cold blood - police and judges who have some personal connection to a case are routinely forbidden to be involved in the investigation or trial.

In Faerun, private vigilante justice is accepted and widely practiced as an alternative to "official" justice, so it's often acceptable (in FR morality, different from RL) to undertake someone else's vengeance quest in cold blood. It's equivalent to RL police hunting a criminal in cold blood.

When playing a Paladin (as I sometimes do), I have no hesitation about accepting Dorn's BG1 quest to eliminate some very bad guys - fighting bad guys is exactly what a Paladin is meant to do. My Paladins generally won't keep working with Dorn afterwards (and might even turn on him), but first co-operating with him to hunt down his former gang is no moral problem.

(For the avoidance of doubt, Dorn's BG2 questline is a different matter, which my Paladins are very unlikely to accept.)

Tarlugn

Oh really?

They sounded more like drama queens than genuine "bad guys".

The BG2 quest was entertraining ( solving the problematic situation by discussing the matter in detail ).

The end result reminds me of Minsc still only due to the similarity in being dependant of HLAs,

Gallowglass

Tarlugn said:

They sounded more like drama queens than genuine "bad guys".

Well, of course they're cartoonish caricatures (as usual for videogame characters), so maybe they do sound like drama queens.

However, if you keep Dorn around for a long time, then eventually he'll explain what he and his former associates did in the village of Barrow ... which was to slaughter the whole population for the purpose of terrorising neighbouring settlements into not pursuing the gang for other crimes. So yes indeed, they were thoroughly bad guys.

Tarlugn

Nah, Dorn told me he was hired as a mercenary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary

, and then his forner "partners in crime" exposed him to the local authority.

What I don´t get is how the half-orc blackguard got out of Luskan prison.

Gallowglass

Tarlugn said:

Nah, Dorn told me he was hired as a mercenary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary

How Dorn originally joined the gang is no excuse for him, and completely irrelevant for his associates. They all willingly participated in an atrocity and are therefore all very bad guys.

Tarlugn said:

and then his forner "partners in crime" exposed him to the local authority.

Yes, they sold him out to take the blame, in order to take the heat off the others. That's Dorn's motive for his quest.

Tarlugn said:

What I don´t get is how the half-orc blackguard got out of Luskan prison.

Dorn tells us (eventually) that it was while in Luskan prison that he made his pact with Ur-Gothoz - before then he was a mass-murderer, but not yet an actual Blackguard. The exact mechanism of his escape is not precisely described so far as I recall, but it's implied that his new Blackguard powers enabled him to surprise his jailors and overpower them.

Tarlugn

I think he should have thought about massacre again, but maybe he was stupid? Like, committing such an atrocity should toll a bell or two, right?

https://youtu.be/weStzJV8ZTo