@Gurkengelee - so glad you are back! No worries about having to stop every so often. Life gets hectic! Though not, I hope, as hectic as Groshok's . . .
Around the mines we found a sculptor by the name of Prism. Apparently there was a bounty on him and he feared this “Greywolf” fellow would come to collect hit. He promised us all he had if we protect him from the bounty hunter. Since I had an interest in meeting the guy and beating some sense of proper nicknaming into him, I accepted. And indeed Greywolf appeared and recognized me as the one, taking a bounty from him. He attacked. We killed him. And he shall be known as “Bloody Pulp” the bounty hunter henceforth.
[Authors Note: This raised our reputation by 1 to 2.]
The foreman of the mine gave us a day to investigate things in the mine. Pah, does he intend to kick me out afterwards? I want to see him try. Anyway, a day is all we need.
In the mines it became clear that kobolds are the source of the infestation. The whole range of Amn couldn’t deal with measly kobolds? Those guys are such jokes. Some miner asked us to bring a dagger to a friend of him. Since he wouldn’t cough up a reward I declined.
In the end we found a half-orc cleric named Mulahey, who appeared to be responsible for the brittle iron. It seemed he had his kobolds tinkering with the iron with some kind of substance. It matters not. Edwin paralyzed the cleric and Kagain and I hacked him to pieces. Edwin fell under the sudden reinforcement that poured from holes in the walls. Stupid mage. On the corpse of Mulahey we found some notes pointing us to Beregost and a mage named Tranzig.
Being one mage short we made our way to Nashkel to raise him. Ghastkill gave us the promised reward and then made off.
[Authors Note: This raised our reputation by 1 to 3.]
We raised Edwin, since mere death won’t release him from his oath of servitude to me. We healed up and were ambushed by a guy named Nimbul. He made fancy noises but a horror spell by Edwin and some chasing around saw him dead. A note on his body confirmed that this Nimbul character seemed to be a pretty popular assassin, hired to directly target me. If I just knew where his employers hid out, I would have send him the assassins head. As things stand Nimbul has to rot behind the temple.
29. Mirtul
Since Mulaheys note pointed us towards Beregost we traveled back to the city. There we were approached by the old man from the woods again. Turns out he is Elminster, the Chosen of Mystra, himself. Apparently he knew Gorion and therefore he knows me. He told me not to give in to my “predatory instincts”, since this might be dangerous to me. Who by the nine hells does this old relic think he is? Does he know the joy that killing brings me? Does he know the rush I experience when crushing my enemies under the weight of my weapons? Does he know ANYTHING? No! If he would be as clever as he thinks he is, he would have warned Gorion of that “E” fellow that lured the old man out of Candlekeep and into his doom. Did Elminster do this? No! This guy has no clue, so I dismissed him. He pointed me towards the north east if I want to find the bandits at least.
Some girl approached us and told us that a Flaming Fist Officer wanted to see us in the Jovial Juggler. That promised to be fun. And indeed the officer immediately attacked us, blade drawn. We made short work of her but more guards showed up. They put up a good fight again and Edwin had to use the wand of paralysis on one of them. This is getting annoying, but it provides me with a good indication of my own strength. If we cannot dispatch those guards with ease, we have no chance against the armored figure that massacred Gorion.
[ Authors Note: Killing Vai reduced our reputation by 1 to 2. Killing the guards then brought us all the way back to 1. Since Groshuk won’t donate to a temple I guess our reputation will now continue to hover at 2 and 1 so I will not report on it anymore.]
Afterwards we went to Feldeposts to confront Tranzig. He threatened us with being a mage. I was unimpressed. No mage can stand in the way of my rage. So I hacked him to pieces, ignoring his whiny pleas for surrender. On his corpse we found a note pointing us to Peldvale or Larswood.
The room next to Tranzig had a guest who had a fine, shimmering cloak that I wanted. So I took it.
[Authors Note: I skilled Montarons pickpocket to 50 to get the Golden Pantaloons. But now with my reputation being in the gutter anyway, I experience quite a liberating feeling. I can just go and kill people with no further repercussions. That’s what happened to poor Algernon. Maybe being Chaotic Evil has its merits? We’ll see how it goes further down the road.]
Since Tranzigs notes pointed us to either Peldvale or Larswood I decided to start with the former. Upon arrival we met a drow who ran from a Flaming Fist Mercenary. A drow on the surface? My curiosity was piqued and killing the soldier was good sport so we helped her. Turned out she was a cleric of Shar, who had to flee her Lolth-worshipping kind in the Underdark. Since a cleric was missing in my party I welcomed her in the fold. I hope for her that her services do not disappoint.
We met a ranger named Ted, who ran from us. Good for him.
We also ran into some bandits who tried to rob us. While we could have slaughtered them, I had the good idea to ask to team up. Maybe they would lead us to the camp where we could scout out the resistance we could expect. And indeed, they brought us to their lair.
2. Kythorn
Here we met Tazok the half-ogre who hired Nimbul the assassin. He barked like a dog and then whimpered away when I beat his ass. But we got access to the camp now.
We encountered some Gnolls in a cave. While they were easy enough to kill, our backline managed to get stabbed by their halberds and were in need of medical attention. So we went back to the Friendly Arm Inn to heal and rest.
3. Kythorn
We had to kill some more guards here before we could heal at the temple. I decided it would be a good time to give Unshey her belt back. So I strangled her with it. Since she obviously didn’t need it anymore, I then took it back. Services rendered; you are welcome.
4. Kythorn
On our way back to the Bandit Camp we were attacked by a group of mercenaries let by some Molkar. Bah. They died like the rabble they are.
Viconia healed the weaklings of the party and we continued on to the bandit camp. Some joker named Credus informed us about important papers in the central camp. Time to investigate. Inside we disturbed a sausage party of some sorts. They didn’t take kindly to our interruption so bloodletting ensued. Kagain bore the brunt of the melee attacks while Edwin was peppered by arrows and went down looking like a porcupine. Dorn and I meanwhile butchered the bandits.
Afterwards we talked to an Elf named Ender Sai. He pointed us towards the Iron Throne, a merchant organization from Baldurs Gate as the possible culprits. He was then summary executed by Montaron. I like that little guy. A chest provided some nice equipment, including magical gloves and some letters pointing to the Cloakwood mines as center of operation of this Iron Throne.
Back outside the camp we where stopped by the leader of the Black Talon bandits. Kagain showed surprising guts and challenged him to a fight in my name. The leader – Taurgosz – split the dwarfs skull with a single swing and then came for me, crying for help of his man. The whole bandit camp proceeded to swarm us. We were bombarded by poisoned arrows and stabbed by seemingly dozens of swords. Dorn was brought down to his knees by swarming bandits and stabbed to death. Viconia died, spitting curses in her drow language. Montaron tried to flee and hide but was killed by arrows. I kicked his lifeless body into the bandits next to me and took the time to gulp some potions. The world turned red and I swung my flails. Bleeding out of more and more wounds I killed and maimed and slaughtered my way through the camp. The last hobgoblin died under my attacks, just when my strength ran out.
I wavered but did never falter. The killing, the slaughter … the brush with death. Indeed I felt as if some kind of energy was flowing through my veins, pumping me up with every life I take. As if this is what I was born for. Strange.
[Authors Note: This was probably one of the most epic battles I ever had. The whole party getting killed and then Groshuk going on a murderous rampage atop an every higher pile of corpses. Stuff of legends!]
I stuffed the equipment of my party in a nearby chest and then made my way alone to the Friendly Arm Inn.
Where I promptly was approached by Elminster. Is he stalking me? Sorry but I do not dig older men. So I shooed him off and proceeded to resurrect my party members. They all owe me big time now.
We went back to the Bandit Camp to get back our stuff and loot the place. Viconia wailed something about the sun. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought that weakling woman with me?
9. Kythorn
Before heading of to the cloakwood I decided to explore the rest of the sword coast. We ran into an exvacation side where we were first hired as guards. The associate of the foreman named Gallor then made us a better offer to slay everyone else in the expedition. That sounded fun so I accepted.
Inside the exvacation the miners turned mad and we had to kill them anyway. The leader, a man named Charleston Nib then asked us to leave with him and let the strange statuette we found alone. I decided to honor my contract, killed Nib and took the statue. We were paid our 900 gold. But then Gallor went mad too and got support from some strange apparition that was apparently not that happy about us taking the statuette. Sadly for him he also lost his existence.
Speaking of madness we also encountered Captain Brage and his sister or cousin or somesuch. I was as amused as Viconia and played the hero that just has to strike down evil! The girl wasn’t as amused as we were and tried to attack us. Before she could say her first spell she was beheaded by Brage. What a funny family.
We then killed Brage and went back to Nashkel to get the bounty.
On our way we were ambushed by a bunch of girls. They were quite arrogant but made very good sport when I cut their fingers off and send them off to run for their lifes while Montaron shot arrows at them.
10. Kythorn
Back in Nashkel we visited the inn where I had another dream. A dream of myself, set in stone in the core of the world. And a voice, booming like a god, telling me, my power is borrowed. Nonsense! When I awoke I felt I had the ability to inspire fear in all my enemies. That was my power! Mine! MINE ALONE!
In front of the inn we met a woman that Dorn wanted to inquire for a former associate of his. She pointed us to a woman that apparently pinched her husband and went eastwards. So Dorn is jealous? Weakling. Nevertheless we went east to search this woman
On our way we met some screaming fool. What’s with all the madness lately?
[Authors Note: This is what really bothers me about this evil playthrough. You miss out on a lot of stuff and quests by just being an uncaring bastard. For this encounter I missed out on the dagger +2. I thought about choosing the “Yeah better give it back right quick” option but the one, calling Hentold a whimpering fool seemed to me to be the eviller choice. The same happened with Hafiz where we miss out on a Scroll of Protection from Magic.]
Even further east we came across a Flaming Fist Officer who dared to question us. He couldn’t take a joke and his skull couldn’t take a flail.
We encountered some skeletons that apparently scared Dorn to brown his undergarments. Good thing I didn’t give him the golden pantaloons.
Shortly thereafter we met this necromancer. She summoned a band of skeletons and tried to fear and charm us. She was no match for my channeled rage at all so I dismantled one of the skeletons and then rammed the separated skeletal arm down the throat of the woman until she choked on it. That was good fun and we even found clues to Dorns former leader Simmeon. Apparently, he made camp in front of Baldurs Gate. We will get to him in time.
Not in time will come help for some poor sod whose girlfriend asked us for help. No time for weaklings.
14. Kythorn
We made our way towards the Cloakwood. We crossed the Firewine Bridge in between where we were annoyed by a cleriv of Ilmater. Who worships such a useless deity?
We also encountered some wet-behind-the-ears manikin who provoked a fight. He got it and we took his gloves.
There was another mad woman on our way. Really what is happening?
17. Kythorn
We finally arrived in the Cloakwood. We were asked by some Aldeth Sashenstar to help him against some wildlings. I agreed but then changed my mind and killed Sashenstar instead.
[Authors Note: On the plus side I get all the achievements that I have never gotten in my playthroughs now.]
Further inside the woods we met some fat spider matriarch or somesuch. We killed her and her brood but their poison proved to be quite lethal and brought down Kagain and Viconia. Funny, since the drow is always babbling something about a spider god she is afraid of.
Back at the Friendly Arm Inn we ran into another ambush by the Flaming Fist. And I had to put down Dorn for insubordination. If this fool questions me one more time I will cut him into thin slices and feed him to Elminster.
19. Kythorn
Back in the Cloakwood a coven of druids thought we were with the Iron Throne. I didn’t bother to correct them but instead killed them and their leader.
I am honestly surprised having only 2 rep hasn't backfired yet. Ususally when I play I go to a 6 to avoid any issues of having EVERYONE try to kill me.
After killing our way through the Cloakwood and eliminating a bunch of mercenaries we finally arrived at the mines. While killing guards is fun, listening to the rambling of slaves is not.
We killed our way down the mine, slaughtering every last human, ogre and hobgoblin we found.
We also declined the offer to shag the cook of the whole operation. My sausage will not get near that pot, that much is clear.
We found the master of the mine, a mage named Davaeorn. Montaron died to the swords of his Battle Horrors and Dorn and I reciprocated by hacking the mage to pieces while being protected of his spells courtesy of potions of magic blocking.
According to his assistant the real masterminds of the Iron Throne are residing in their offices in Baldurs Gate. We thanked the man by granting him a quick death and then proceeded to flood the mine and all the slaves inside.
10. Flamerule
After finishing up all business we then proceeded to Baldurs Gate. On our way we were halted by the worst bounty hunter the Sword Coast has ever seen. Apparently he was hunting us without even knowing how we look? With a drow in the group? I refrained from killing him. Living as this low-life must be the most painful thing I can think of.
[Authors Note: This was honestly a bit disappointing. I hoped for a more interesting encounter when I read that there is a special bounty hunter for low-rep-parties only.]
On the bridge we were halted by a Flaming Fist officer by the name of Scar. He wanted to hire us for some investigation inside the city. Hired by the Flaming Fist who are trying to kill me on a regular basis? You must be kidding. I sent him off and we went our merry way.
We then found Simmeon who claimed to have made the same pact that Dorn made. He summoned a couple of demons and put up a very good fight. Fittingly he was killed by Dorn who finally got his vengeance. Now he should be able to focus on serving me with his full attention.
After another encounter with Elminster who made some more senile babbling about not following my impulses. Does he know my impulse right now is to bash his skull in? Did I do it? No. See, I have myself under control old man.
We were then approached by another duo of assassins who promptly ran off after we did not submit. Weaklings. We took a rest at the local inn, where we were ambushed by another group of Flaming Fist soldiers. As we explored the city we were approached by the brother of the Sashenstar guy from the Cloakwoods. Apparently he wanted revenge. He got cold steel instead and Dorn took his very nice looking crossbow. We were also attacked by a couple of harpers who wanted to stop me for “being my fathers child.” Me? Like that weakling Gorion? Are you crazy? We killed him and his dwarven buddy and took his helmet of charm protection, while Gorion was still wolf food last time I checked. So much for that.
[Authors Note: If I see this correctly the wiki does not yet include this drop of the helmet. Someone should add it ?]
Nevertheless the harper and his friend put up a good fight so we looked for a place to rest. We finally found a fence named “Silence” (what is it with the stupid nicknames?) who offered lodging. He charged us extra for being wanted criminals though. Begrudgingly I agreed and we got a good night sleep with Montaron keeping watch, in case the fence sold us to the guard.
[Authors Note: This is actually a nice extra tidbit of dialoge for low reputation parties that I have never seen before. A nice little touch I think.]
@Gurkengelee , Wow, you're really showing us how it's done to play evil in BG. It seems like the game accommodates being chaotic evil pretty well. I wonder why I read complaints so often that there aren't enough evil options? Maybe it's because there's not much written for the more subtle forms of evil other than the psycho killer version, or that you have to miss out on some quests if you give the jerk responses to questgivers?
Thanks. Yeah it really seems that Baldurs Gate's imagination of evil is Chaotic Evil. Which is why the more sensible apporach of Lawful or Neutral Evil seems to be not very well represented. But as @TheGreatGodLoki said, I am also quite surprised that it goes relatively smoothly with a reputation of 1. Only the high store prices are an annoyance (I regularly kick out Viconia before shopping, to reset my reputation to 3 which just doubles store prices).
We then entered the local mage store called Sorcerous Sundries. He had a good collection and I purchased a magic flail. Upstairs we found some mages who claimed to be associates of Xzar in a campaign against the Iron Throne. With Xzar being fodder for the fishes they immediately bailed.
[Authors Note: To buy stuff I removed Viconia from the party, thus increasing my reputation to 3. So prices are just double the normal amount instead of a tenfold increase. Still hurts the wallet, I was never as strained for gold as in this playthrough. Crime doesn’t seem to pay.]
As we explored the city looking for clues about the Iron Throne we met one of the assassins from earlier. He informed us that we have been poisoned and would need an antidote carried by him and his associate. But in order to get it we would have to find a way to release him from a geas cast upon his soul. Bah. Poison is a woman’s weapon. So we found out that the high priestess of Umberlee could remove the geas, but she wanted a tome of insight for her services. So we got the tome, slaughtered the priestess, claimed the magic scroll to remove the geas, gave it to Lothander the assassin, got the antidote and then smashed Lothander to pieces. I do not care if you are enslaved or not. If you stand against me you will die. Good thing that something like this will never happen again. How likely is it that there will be another man with a geas on his soul ready to betray me? Yeah.
12. Flamerule
We then went to see his companion in crime. We had to cut down an ogre who seemed to be a bodyguard and then killed the assassin himself. He indeed had the antidote so we gulped it in turn. With this piece of business done I turned my attention to an invitation to the local thieves guild that I got earlier. I was promised 50 gold just to listen to their leader. That couldn’t hurt.
As it turned out even 500 gold wouldn’t have compensated me for the insufferable self flattery this Ravenscar fellow blarted outwards. He even dared to threaten me. ME! Doesn’t he know whom he is speaking to? Time to teach him a lesson that he would remember for the rest of his life. Which lasted additional 30 seconds until I struck him down. We continued with all his fellow thieves who didn’t have the good senses to use their invisibility potions to run for it. Instead they slit Edwins throat and massacred Montaron in such an excessive way that even I was impressed. No raising that one I guess. I shoed all the weaklings of my party away and decided to stand alone against the thieves. Their puny attempts at backstabbery could barely scratch me so I punched, bit and kicked their bodies through the room until a heavy carpet of gore covered the floor. There was even someone claiming to be from the Shadow Thief guild. Aren’t those from Amn? Oh well. I snitched another magical tome and we left.
With Montaron gone and the weaklings of my group being severely injured I decided to bail the city for now. We went to Beregost to heal up and look for a replacement for the halfling. We found it in the form of a woman named Shar-Teel who had the guts to challenge me to a duel. I respect that and thus only used my bare hands to punch her to the ground. I accepted her offer of fealty and named her the new party thief.
[Authors Note: I think I discovered a bug here. In the Enhanced Edition if you recruit a character they are not auto leveled anymore but you can actually control their level up process. So I thought I dual class Shar-Teel right at level 1 and use the excess XP for her thief levels. But after dual classing the excess XP vanished and she was now a level 1 fighter and level 1 thief. Not working as intended I guess.]
You shouldn't be able to dual-class a level 1 character at all - but Shar-Teel starts at level 2, so that's OK. Extra XP vanishing? Normal behavior. You always drop to zero XP in the new class when you dual, and the XP of the old class isn't even tracked anymore.
The joining loophole is that, if you dual-class in the brief window between recruiting the character and them receiving the joining XP, that character receives the joining XP in their new class. If you hear the chime and see the +, it's too late. That XP belongs to their first class, and you might as well use it there - in Shar-Teel's case, getting a healthy HP base and mastering a weapon.
Back in Baldurs Gate we were hired to steal a telescope from the hall of wonders. We took it by massacring the waiting Flaming Fist contingent. Good times and no one ever got a scratch. I think we are making nice progress. Our employer complained about the bloodshed and tried to bail out of his payment. I stopped him with a look and he had the good sense to bring out the reward. Otherwise I would just have taken it.
We explored the city a bit more and it was very joyful. We killed a mage, scared a couple of thieves, killed two woman going on about entropy, slaughtered a Sirene just for sport and then stomped dead a cat that belonged to an orphan. Big cities are fun!
We continued to kill some knight and his silly butler, assassinated some ruffian who extorted a woman. Since the woman couldn’t pay us the promised reward I decided to extort her instead for regular payment. Divine justice, promptly delivered.
15. Flamerule
We were also hired by a mage to steal a nymph from a colleague of his. Said colleague named Ragefast spit some tough words at us. Sadly for him his skull wasn’t comparably tough and cracked easily under my boot. We took the Nymph and dragged her back to Ramazith the mage. He explained that he would chop up the girl for magical potions and items and gave us a bracer as a reward. A measly bracer when the body parts of the Nymph were basically poor gold? I won’t be cheated, so we cut up Ramazith first and then turned to the Nymph. Who promptly escaped via a dimension door. Hmph. At least we could loot the mage tower for some items and another magical tome.
[Authors Note: Funnily enough trying to kill the Nymph gave me the “Damsel in Distress” achievement, since she ported away. Also not working as intended I would say.]
After killing some more thieves (they squeak so funny when you stab them!), a paladin and another mage (how many can there be?) we entered a heavily guarded house. Several Helmed Horrors, Doom Guards and Invisible Stalkers surrounded us and we had to resort to summoned minions to buy some time.
The owner of the house was yet another mage named Degrodel who made the common mistake of threatening me. So my reputation is enough for Flaming Fist mercenaries to swarm me at every corner but not enough to hammer some common sense in the lowlives of the realm? Naturally we killed him but not before his minions managed to fell Dorn.
After we raised Dorn we met a dwarf who coveted the cloak I was wearing. I gave it to him and then crushed his throat with my bare fist. My cloak. We killed some peeping toms in the form of (another!!!) mage and a druid, robbed an estate and then stumbled across some statues that in fact seemed to be petrified adventurers. Shar-Teel proved to be useful the first time in her life and found a note on one of them pointing us to the helm and cloak of Balduran. We then proceeded to crush the statues and play a game of dodge ball with their heads.
We procured the helm and the cloak and then stumbled across this Scar fellow again. Instead of trying to hire us he asked us to accompany him to a fellow named “Grand Duke” Eltan.
[Authors Note: I wasn’t aware that you could just skip the Seven Suns and Missing Citizens quest line. But apparently you can. Cool.]
We met the duke and talked about the Iron Throne. He promised us 2.000 gold if we could provide him with prove that the Iron Throne was behind the recent caravan raids. Since I had good reason to pay the Throne a visit anyway I accepted. He declined to call of the Flaming Fist mercenaries but he refused. Apparently it would show him in a bad light. What kind of pompous fool does one have to be if you care about the opinion of others?
Authors Note: I tried the confrontational route in the dialogue but it just ends in an auto death. Pity. Would be cool if you could actually kill Eltan to get the book for Candlekeep.]
Fully rested we entered the headquarters of the Iron Throne. Guards tried to stop us and were quickly disposed of. We also killed the Bartender.
On the uppermost floor instead of meeting the Iron Throne leaders we met a merry band of mercenaries. Apparently they were hand picked by a man named Sarevok to kill me. And indeed they put up a much better fight than all the assassins that came before. Spells were exchanged, Viconia used her Wand of the Heavens, I entered my rage and started hacking at the archers. Share Teel was dismembered by the knights, Edwin fell to a backstab and Viconia was blasted by a spell. With Dorn and myself heavily wounded we came out victorious. But it was a very close call. That gave me pause. If this Sarevok fellow could hire men that capable, maybe he also hired the armored figure that killed Gorion in that very first night of my journey? Maybe. I will need to confront him about it.
After we resurrected the dead weight and looted the valuables we finally found a leader of the Iron Throne hiding in a cupboard. He told us that the master of the Iron Throne, a man named Rieltar was actually at Candlekeep. Candlekeep! Of all the places. We quickly gutted the guy and collected some written evidence to present to Eltan for my reward.
He gave us the gold and a tome to access Candlekeep. Oh well. Time to head back to where it all started. And hopefully get the chance to burn it all down.
18. Flamerule
We arrived at Candlekeep and were ambushed by a cadre of Ogre Mages. They were apparently promised 10.000 gold by “the son of murder”. What is it with the nicknames, really? We killed them before they could get any magic off. I presented the book from Eltan to the Gatekeeper and we were let inside.
Ahhhh Candlekeep. The smell of books, the mumbling of monks and the warm feeling of a deep desire to burn it to the ground. I did not spend much time reminiscing and went straight to the keep. I was halted by Cadderly, an associate of Gorion who tried to lecture me. Bah.
Inside the keep more monks tried to talk to me. Why does every old crook in this damnable place thinks he can just come and talk to me? Because they did so when I was just a child who couldn’t resist? Not anymore. Try me and I kill you all you foolish, booksucking bastards.
More interesting was an encounter with a fellow named Koveras. He had intimate knowledge of the night Gorion was murdered. Hm. He left before I could inquire more. Upstairs I entered Gorions old room. I found a note. It informed me of my true heritage.
.
.
.
I am not just the foster son of an old fool. I am the son of god. The god of murder. I am the son of Bhaal.
AND YOU KEPT THAT FROM ME YOU INSUFFERABLE, THRICE CURSED BASTARD!
My true heritage. My true lineage. Now everything makes sense. The warm feeling I get while killing. The joy I get from seeing the life drained from a sentient being. The exhilaration when I am spilled with blood and gore from my enemies while their life force leaves them. That is me. That is my destiny. I am the son of a god. I will become a god.
I gave the scroll to Edwin to burn it. I fully expect him to read it beforehand. So he shall. So he will know who .. .what .. I am. And so he and everyone else who decided to join me … serve me … knows that they should never cross me. Or they will find murder coming for them.
With newfound resolve … with newfound ambition I searched the rest of the keep for the leaders of the Iron Throne. I found them in the big reading hall. Their leader, Rieltar tried to mock me, insinuating that I wouldn’t dare to attack them right under the noses of the monks. Doesn’t he know who I am? Doesn’t he know what I will become?
I straight up charged him and smashed him to the ground with a single strike from my flail. His frail bones broken I could see … I could feel the life draining from him. His comrades didn’t fare much better with the rest of my party swarming them and hacking them to pieces. Whatever precious books they have been reading were now thick with blood.
I smiled when the Watchers approached and announced that they would apprehend us. I willingly agreed. I broke out of the stupid prison when I was but a child after roughing up that emissary from Luskan. With my current power the prison won’t hold me for a minute.
Well as it turned out they reinforced the bars and it would be quite difficult to escape. Thus I had to endure the endless sermon of Ulraunt. We share a mutual disgust for each other so he was very gleeful when he announced that he would send me to Baldurs Gate to die. Strong words from someone hiding behind metal bars.
At last Tethoril came and send us into the catacombs via a dimension door spell. Good man Tethoril. Maybe I will give him a warning before burning Candlekeep to the ground.
We explored the catacombs and found some undead, spiders and more magical tomes. Closer to the surface we encountered doppelganger who pretended to be people I knew from Candlekeep. Phlydia, Hull, Fuller, Winthrop. Too bad they turned to their original form before attacking. I really would have liked to punch all those stupid faces to bloody pulp! Sadly that only happened to the Doppelgangers of Arkanis and Deder, since they didn’t change. Maybe they were the real deal? Just the better!
[Authors Note: Somehow killing Arkanis und Deder felt like the worst deed done by Groshuk yet. I was so shocked to realize that you are attacked by those jolly two fellows when your reputation is low.]
Just a heads up. I just arrived in Siege of Dragonspear. I went halfway through Durlags Tower before it demotivated me and led me to play a whole lot of other games "Groshuk Style". I played through the Deus Ex games, killing as many people as possible. I started Torment:Tides of Numenara as a strength based Glaive, being a dick to everyone around me. I also currently in my first playthrough of Dark Souls as a barbarian (Bandit class).
So for this playthrough this means that I will skip any narrative of the Tales of the Swordcoast content and probably skip right to the Dukes and the final battle (I didn't do many screenshots). And then I will go right into Siege of Dragonspear, which I am pretty excited about. I literally know nothing about the expansion except about the end boss.
Hey I just got caught up, is there a reason you haven't finished the game? I understand Durlags is a bit of a slog, but I'd really like to see you finish the game and kill Saeavok!
@TheGreatGodLoki Thanks for enjoying my writings! With a little roadbump in Durlags Tower and then a ton of stressful work during Covid-19 this playthrough was not really continued. I am not even sure I got the savegame anymore. As soon as 2.6 hits I'll see if I can restore Groshuk. Alternativley I am eager to try a Cleric/Mage evil Necromancer playthrough.
I've played with Xzar as a Necro 5/Cleric dual and mained a Cleric/Enchanter multi. It's fun to do, highly recommend it.
Hope you do find the Groshuk save. As a plan B you could also recreate Groshuk and start SoD stand alone. Proper gear for yourself Edwin, Viconia and Dorn could be consoled in at the appropriate times.
Comments
Around the mines we found a sculptor by the name of Prism. Apparently there was a bounty on him and he feared this “Greywolf” fellow would come to collect hit. He promised us all he had if we protect him from the bounty hunter. Since I had an interest in meeting the guy and beating some sense of proper nicknaming into him, I accepted. And indeed Greywolf appeared and recognized me as the one, taking a bounty from him. He attacked. We killed him. And he shall be known as “Bloody Pulp” the bounty hunter henceforth.
[Authors Note: This raised our reputation by 1 to 2.]
The foreman of the mine gave us a day to investigate things in the mine. Pah, does he intend to kick me out afterwards? I want to see him try. Anyway, a day is all we need.
In the mines it became clear that kobolds are the source of the infestation. The whole range of Amn couldn’t deal with measly kobolds? Those guys are such jokes. Some miner asked us to bring a dagger to a friend of him. Since he wouldn’t cough up a reward I declined.
In the end we found a half-orc cleric named Mulahey, who appeared to be responsible for the brittle iron. It seemed he had his kobolds tinkering with the iron with some kind of substance. It matters not. Edwin paralyzed the cleric and Kagain and I hacked him to pieces. Edwin fell under the sudden reinforcement that poured from holes in the walls. Stupid mage. On the corpse of Mulahey we found some notes pointing us to Beregost and a mage named Tranzig.
Being one mage short we made our way to Nashkel to raise him. Ghastkill gave us the promised reward and then made off.
[Authors Note: This raised our reputation by 1 to 3.]
We raised Edwin, since mere death won’t release him from his oath of servitude to me. We healed up and were ambushed by a guy named Nimbul. He made fancy noises but a horror spell by Edwin and some chasing around saw him dead. A note on his body confirmed that this Nimbul character seemed to be a pretty popular assassin, hired to directly target me. If I just knew where his employers hid out, I would have send him the assassins head. As things stand Nimbul has to rot behind the temple.
29. Mirtul
Since Mulaheys note pointed us towards Beregost we traveled back to the city. There we were approached by the old man from the woods again. Turns out he is Elminster, the Chosen of Mystra, himself. Apparently he knew Gorion and therefore he knows me. He told me not to give in to my “predatory instincts”, since this might be dangerous to me. Who by the nine hells does this old relic think he is? Does he know the joy that killing brings me? Does he know the rush I experience when crushing my enemies under the weight of my weapons? Does he know ANYTHING? No! If he would be as clever as he thinks he is, he would have warned Gorion of that “E” fellow that lured the old man out of Candlekeep and into his doom. Did Elminster do this? No! This guy has no clue, so I dismissed him. He pointed me towards the north east if I want to find the bandits at least.
Some girl approached us and told us that a Flaming Fist Officer wanted to see us in the Jovial Juggler. That promised to be fun. And indeed the officer immediately attacked us, blade drawn. We made short work of her but more guards showed up. They put up a good fight again and Edwin had to use the wand of paralysis on one of them. This is getting annoying, but it provides me with a good indication of my own strength. If we cannot dispatch those guards with ease, we have no chance against the armored figure that massacred Gorion.
[ Authors Note: Killing Vai reduced our reputation by 1 to 2. Killing the guards then brought us all the way back to 1. Since Groshuk won’t donate to a temple I guess our reputation will now continue to hover at 2 and 1 so I will not report on it anymore.]
Afterwards we went to Feldeposts to confront Tranzig. He threatened us with being a mage. I was unimpressed. No mage can stand in the way of my rage. So I hacked him to pieces, ignoring his whiny pleas for surrender. On his corpse we found a note pointing us to Peldvale or Larswood.
The room next to Tranzig had a guest who had a fine, shimmering cloak that I wanted. So I took it.
[Authors Note: I skilled Montarons pickpocket to 50 to get the Golden Pantaloons. But now with my reputation being in the gutter anyway, I experience quite a liberating feeling. I can just go and kill people with no further repercussions. That’s what happened to poor Algernon. Maybe being Chaotic Evil has its merits? We’ll see how it goes further down the road.]
Since Tranzigs notes pointed us to either Peldvale or Larswood I decided to start with the former. Upon arrival we met a drow who ran from a Flaming Fist Mercenary. A drow on the surface? My curiosity was piqued and killing the soldier was good sport so we helped her. Turned out she was a cleric of Shar, who had to flee her Lolth-worshipping kind in the Underdark. Since a cleric was missing in my party I welcomed her in the fold. I hope for her that her services do not disappoint.
We met a ranger named Ted, who ran from us. Good for him.
We also ran into some bandits who tried to rob us. While we could have slaughtered them, I had the good idea to ask to team up. Maybe they would lead us to the camp where we could scout out the resistance we could expect. And indeed, they brought us to their lair.
2. Kythorn
Here we met Tazok the half-ogre who hired Nimbul the assassin. He barked like a dog and then whimpered away when I beat his ass. But we got access to the camp now.
We encountered some Gnolls in a cave. While they were easy enough to kill, our backline managed to get stabbed by their halberds and were in need of medical attention. So we went back to the Friendly Arm Inn to heal and rest.
3. Kythorn
We had to kill some more guards here before we could heal at the temple. I decided it would be a good time to give Unshey her belt back. So I strangled her with it. Since she obviously didn’t need it anymore, I then took it back. Services rendered; you are welcome.
4. Kythorn
On our way back to the Bandit Camp we were attacked by a group of mercenaries let by some Molkar. Bah. They died like the rabble they are.
Viconia healed the weaklings of the party and we continued on to the bandit camp. Some joker named Credus informed us about important papers in the central camp. Time to investigate. Inside we disturbed a sausage party of some sorts. They didn’t take kindly to our interruption so bloodletting ensued. Kagain bore the brunt of the melee attacks while Edwin was peppered by arrows and went down looking like a porcupine. Dorn and I meanwhile butchered the bandits.
Afterwards we talked to an Elf named Ender Sai. He pointed us towards the Iron Throne, a merchant organization from Baldurs Gate as the possible culprits. He was then summary executed by Montaron. I like that little guy. A chest provided some nice equipment, including magical gloves and some letters pointing to the Cloakwood mines as center of operation of this Iron Throne.
Back outside the camp we where stopped by the leader of the Black Talon bandits. Kagain showed surprising guts and challenged him to a fight in my name. The leader – Taurgosz – split the dwarfs skull with a single swing and then came for me, crying for help of his man. The whole bandit camp proceeded to swarm us. We were bombarded by poisoned arrows and stabbed by seemingly dozens of swords. Dorn was brought down to his knees by swarming bandits and stabbed to death. Viconia died, spitting curses in her drow language. Montaron tried to flee and hide but was killed by arrows. I kicked his lifeless body into the bandits next to me and took the time to gulp some potions. The world turned red and I swung my flails. Bleeding out of more and more wounds I killed and maimed and slaughtered my way through the camp. The last hobgoblin died under my attacks, just when my strength ran out.
I wavered but did never falter. The killing, the slaughter … the brush with death. Indeed I felt as if some kind of energy was flowing through my veins, pumping me up with every life I take. As if this is what I was born for. Strange.
[Authors Note: This was probably one of the most epic battles I ever had. The whole party getting killed and then Groshuk going on a murderous rampage atop an every higher pile of corpses. Stuff of legends!]
I stuffed the equipment of my party in a nearby chest and then made my way alone to the Friendly Arm Inn.
Where I promptly was approached by Elminster. Is he stalking me? Sorry but I do not dig older men. So I shooed him off and proceeded to resurrect my party members. They all owe me big time now.
We went back to the Bandit Camp to get back our stuff and loot the place. Viconia wailed something about the sun. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought that weakling woman with me?
9. Kythorn
Before heading of to the cloakwood I decided to explore the rest of the sword coast. We ran into an exvacation side where we were first hired as guards. The associate of the foreman named Gallor then made us a better offer to slay everyone else in the expedition. That sounded fun so I accepted.
Inside the exvacation the miners turned mad and we had to kill them anyway. The leader, a man named Charleston Nib then asked us to leave with him and let the strange statuette we found alone. I decided to honor my contract, killed Nib and took the statue. We were paid our 900 gold. But then Gallor went mad too and got support from some strange apparition that was apparently not that happy about us taking the statuette. Sadly for him he also lost his existence.
Speaking of madness we also encountered Captain Brage and his sister or cousin or somesuch. I was as amused as Viconia and played the hero that just has to strike down evil! The girl wasn’t as amused as we were and tried to attack us. Before she could say her first spell she was beheaded by Brage. What a funny family.
We then killed Brage and went back to Nashkel to get the bounty.
On our way we were ambushed by a bunch of girls. They were quite arrogant but made very good sport when I cut their fingers off and send them off to run for their lifes while Montaron shot arrows at them.
10. Kythorn
Back in Nashkel we visited the inn where I had another dream. A dream of myself, set in stone in the core of the world. And a voice, booming like a god, telling me, my power is borrowed. Nonsense! When I awoke I felt I had the ability to inspire fear in all my enemies. That was my power! Mine! MINE ALONE!
In front of the inn we met a woman that Dorn wanted to inquire for a former associate of his. She pointed us to a woman that apparently pinched her husband and went eastwards. So Dorn is jealous? Weakling. Nevertheless we went east to search this woman
On our way we met some screaming fool. What’s with all the madness lately?
[Authors Note: This is what really bothers me about this evil playthrough. You miss out on a lot of stuff and quests by just being an uncaring bastard. For this encounter I missed out on the dagger +2. I thought about choosing the “Yeah better give it back right quick” option but the one, calling Hentold a whimpering fool seemed to me to be the eviller choice. The same happened with Hafiz where we miss out on a Scroll of Protection from Magic.]
Even further east we came across a Flaming Fist Officer who dared to question us. He couldn’t take a joke and his skull couldn’t take a flail.
We encountered some skeletons that apparently scared Dorn to brown his undergarments. Good thing I didn’t give him the golden pantaloons.
Shortly thereafter we met this necromancer. She summoned a band of skeletons and tried to fear and charm us. She was no match for my channeled rage at all so I dismantled one of the skeletons and then rammed the separated skeletal arm down the throat of the woman until she choked on it. That was good fun and we even found clues to Dorns former leader Simmeon. Apparently, he made camp in front of Baldurs Gate. We will get to him in time.
Not in time will come help for some poor sod whose girlfriend asked us for help. No time for weaklings.
14. Kythorn
We made our way towards the Cloakwood. We crossed the Firewine Bridge in between where we were annoyed by a cleriv of Ilmater. Who worships such a useless deity?
We also encountered some wet-behind-the-ears manikin who provoked a fight. He got it and we took his gloves.
There was another mad woman on our way. Really what is happening?
17. Kythorn
We finally arrived in the Cloakwood. We were asked by some Aldeth Sashenstar to help him against some wildlings. I agreed but then changed my mind and killed Sashenstar instead.
[Authors Note: On the plus side I get all the achievements that I have never gotten in my playthroughs now.]
Further inside the woods we met some fat spider matriarch or somesuch. We killed her and her brood but their poison proved to be quite lethal and brought down Kagain and Viconia. Funny, since the drow is always babbling something about a spider god she is afraid of.
Back at the Friendly Arm Inn we ran into another ambush by the Flaming Fist. And I had to put down Dorn for insubordination. If this fool questions me one more time I will cut him into thin slices and feed him to Elminster.
19. Kythorn
Back in the Cloakwood a coven of druids thought we were with the Iron Throne. I didn’t bother to correct them but instead killed them and their leader.
I await to see how this pans out
After killing our way through the Cloakwood and eliminating a bunch of mercenaries we finally arrived at the mines. While killing guards is fun, listening to the rambling of slaves is not.
We killed our way down the mine, slaughtering every last human, ogre and hobgoblin we found.
We also declined the offer to shag the cook of the whole operation. My sausage will not get near that pot, that much is clear.
We found the master of the mine, a mage named Davaeorn. Montaron died to the swords of his Battle Horrors and Dorn and I reciprocated by hacking the mage to pieces while being protected of his spells courtesy of potions of magic blocking.
According to his assistant the real masterminds of the Iron Throne are residing in their offices in Baldurs Gate. We thanked the man by granting him a quick death and then proceeded to flood the mine and all the slaves inside.
10. Flamerule
After finishing up all business we then proceeded to Baldurs Gate. On our way we were halted by the worst bounty hunter the Sword Coast has ever seen. Apparently he was hunting us without even knowing how we look? With a drow in the group? I refrained from killing him. Living as this low-life must be the most painful thing I can think of.
[Authors Note: This was honestly a bit disappointing. I hoped for a more interesting encounter when I read that there is a special bounty hunter for low-rep-parties only.]
On the bridge we were halted by a Flaming Fist officer by the name of Scar. He wanted to hire us for some investigation inside the city. Hired by the Flaming Fist who are trying to kill me on a regular basis? You must be kidding. I sent him off and we went our merry way.
We then found Simmeon who claimed to have made the same pact that Dorn made. He summoned a couple of demons and put up a very good fight. Fittingly he was killed by Dorn who finally got his vengeance. Now he should be able to focus on serving me with his full attention.
After another encounter with Elminster who made some more senile babbling about not following my impulses. Does he know my impulse right now is to bash his skull in? Did I do it? No. See, I have myself under control old man.
We were then approached by another duo of assassins who promptly ran off after we did not submit. Weaklings. We took a rest at the local inn, where we were ambushed by another group of Flaming Fist soldiers. As we explored the city we were approached by the brother of the Sashenstar guy from the Cloakwoods. Apparently he wanted revenge. He got cold steel instead and Dorn took his very nice looking crossbow. We were also attacked by a couple of harpers who wanted to stop me for “being my fathers child.” Me? Like that weakling Gorion? Are you crazy? We killed him and his dwarven buddy and took his helmet of charm protection, while Gorion was still wolf food last time I checked. So much for that.
[Authors Note: If I see this correctly the wiki does not yet include this drop of the helmet. Someone should add it ?]
Nevertheless the harper and his friend put up a good fight so we looked for a place to rest. We finally found a fence named “Silence” (what is it with the stupid nicknames?) who offered lodging. He charged us extra for being wanted criminals though. Begrudgingly I agreed and we got a good night sleep with Montaron keeping watch, in case the fence sold us to the guard.
[Authors Note: This is actually a nice extra tidbit of dialoge for low reputation parties that I have never seen before. A nice little touch I think.]
You seem to be playing evil just fine.
Thanks. Yeah it really seems that Baldurs Gate's imagination of evil is Chaotic Evil. Which is why the more sensible apporach of Lawful or Neutral Evil seems to be not very well represented. But as @TheGreatGodLoki said, I am also quite surprised that it goes relatively smoothly with a reputation of 1. Only the high store prices are an annoyance (I regularly kick out Viconia before shopping, to reset my reputation to 3 which just doubles store prices).
We then entered the local mage store called Sorcerous Sundries. He had a good collection and I purchased a magic flail. Upstairs we found some mages who claimed to be associates of Xzar in a campaign against the Iron Throne. With Xzar being fodder for the fishes they immediately bailed.
[Authors Note: To buy stuff I removed Viconia from the party, thus increasing my reputation to 3. So prices are just double the normal amount instead of a tenfold increase. Still hurts the wallet, I was never as strained for gold as in this playthrough. Crime doesn’t seem to pay.]
As we explored the city looking for clues about the Iron Throne we met one of the assassins from earlier. He informed us that we have been poisoned and would need an antidote carried by him and his associate. But in order to get it we would have to find a way to release him from a geas cast upon his soul. Bah. Poison is a woman’s weapon. So we found out that the high priestess of Umberlee could remove the geas, but she wanted a tome of insight for her services. So we got the tome, slaughtered the priestess, claimed the magic scroll to remove the geas, gave it to Lothander the assassin, got the antidote and then smashed Lothander to pieces. I do not care if you are enslaved or not. If you stand against me you will die. Good thing that something like this will never happen again. How likely is it that there will be another man with a geas on his soul ready to betray me? Yeah.
12. Flamerule
We then went to see his companion in crime. We had to cut down an ogre who seemed to be a bodyguard and then killed the assassin himself. He indeed had the antidote so we gulped it in turn. With this piece of business done I turned my attention to an invitation to the local thieves guild that I got earlier. I was promised 50 gold just to listen to their leader. That couldn’t hurt.
As it turned out even 500 gold wouldn’t have compensated me for the insufferable self flattery this Ravenscar fellow blarted outwards. He even dared to threaten me. ME! Doesn’t he know whom he is speaking to? Time to teach him a lesson that he would remember for the rest of his life. Which lasted additional 30 seconds until I struck him down. We continued with all his fellow thieves who didn’t have the good senses to use their invisibility potions to run for it. Instead they slit Edwins throat and massacred Montaron in such an excessive way that even I was impressed. No raising that one I guess. I shoed all the weaklings of my party away and decided to stand alone against the thieves. Their puny attempts at backstabbery could barely scratch me so I punched, bit and kicked their bodies through the room until a heavy carpet of gore covered the floor. There was even someone claiming to be from the Shadow Thief guild. Aren’t those from Amn? Oh well. I snitched another magical tome and we left.
With Montaron gone and the weaklings of my group being severely injured I decided to bail the city for now. We went to Beregost to heal up and look for a replacement for the halfling. We found it in the form of a woman named Shar-Teel who had the guts to challenge me to a duel. I respect that and thus only used my bare hands to punch her to the ground. I accepted her offer of fealty and named her the new party thief.
[Authors Note: I think I discovered a bug here. In the Enhanced Edition if you recruit a character they are not auto leveled anymore but you can actually control their level up process. So I thought I dual class Shar-Teel right at level 1 and use the excess XP for her thief levels. But after dual classing the excess XP vanished and she was now a level 1 fighter and level 1 thief. Not working as intended I guess.]
The joining loophole is that, if you dual-class in the brief window between recruiting the character and them receiving the joining XP, that character receives the joining XP in their new class. If you hear the chime and see the +, it's too late. That XP belongs to their first class, and you might as well use it there - in Shar-Teel's case, getting a healthy HP base and mastering a weapon.
Back in Baldurs Gate we were hired to steal a telescope from the hall of wonders. We took it by massacring the waiting Flaming Fist contingent. Good times and no one ever got a scratch. I think we are making nice progress. Our employer complained about the bloodshed and tried to bail out of his payment. I stopped him with a look and he had the good sense to bring out the reward. Otherwise I would just have taken it.
We explored the city a bit more and it was very joyful. We killed a mage, scared a couple of thieves, killed two woman going on about entropy, slaughtered a Sirene just for sport and then stomped dead a cat that belonged to an orphan. Big cities are fun!
We continued to kill some knight and his silly butler, assassinated some ruffian who extorted a woman. Since the woman couldn’t pay us the promised reward I decided to extort her instead for regular payment. Divine justice, promptly delivered.
15. Flamerule
We were also hired by a mage to steal a nymph from a colleague of his. Said colleague named Ragefast spit some tough words at us. Sadly for him his skull wasn’t comparably tough and cracked easily under my boot. We took the Nymph and dragged her back to Ramazith the mage. He explained that he would chop up the girl for magical potions and items and gave us a bracer as a reward. A measly bracer when the body parts of the Nymph were basically poor gold? I won’t be cheated, so we cut up Ramazith first and then turned to the Nymph. Who promptly escaped via a dimension door. Hmph. At least we could loot the mage tower for some items and another magical tome.
[Authors Note: Funnily enough trying to kill the Nymph gave me the “Damsel in Distress” achievement, since she ported away. Also not working as intended I would say.]
After killing some more thieves (they squeak so funny when you stab them!), a paladin and another mage (how many can there be?) we entered a heavily guarded house. Several Helmed Horrors, Doom Guards and Invisible Stalkers surrounded us and we had to resort to summoned minions to buy some time.
The owner of the house was yet another mage named Degrodel who made the common mistake of threatening me. So my reputation is enough for Flaming Fist mercenaries to swarm me at every corner but not enough to hammer some common sense in the lowlives of the realm? Naturally we killed him but not before his minions managed to fell Dorn.
After we raised Dorn we met a dwarf who coveted the cloak I was wearing. I gave it to him and then crushed his throat with my bare fist. My cloak. We killed some peeping toms in the form of (another!!!) mage and a druid, robbed an estate and then stumbled across some statues that in fact seemed to be petrified adventurers. Shar-Teel proved to be useful the first time in her life and found a note on one of them pointing us to the helm and cloak of Balduran. We then proceeded to crush the statues and play a game of dodge ball with their heads.
We procured the helm and the cloak and then stumbled across this Scar fellow again. Instead of trying to hire us he asked us to accompany him to a fellow named “Grand Duke” Eltan.
[Authors Note: I wasn’t aware that you could just skip the Seven Suns and Missing Citizens quest line. But apparently you can. Cool.]
We met the duke and talked about the Iron Throne. He promised us 2.000 gold if we could provide him with prove that the Iron Throne was behind the recent caravan raids. Since I had good reason to pay the Throne a visit anyway I accepted. He declined to call of the Flaming Fist mercenaries but he refused. Apparently it would show him in a bad light. What kind of pompous fool does one have to be if you care about the opinion of others?
Authors Note: I tried the confrontational route in the dialogue but it just ends in an auto death. Pity. Would be cool if you could actually kill Eltan to get the book for Candlekeep.]
Fully rested we entered the headquarters of the Iron Throne. Guards tried to stop us and were quickly disposed of. We also killed the Bartender.
On the uppermost floor instead of meeting the Iron Throne leaders we met a merry band of mercenaries. Apparently they were hand picked by a man named Sarevok to kill me. And indeed they put up a much better fight than all the assassins that came before. Spells were exchanged, Viconia used her Wand of the Heavens, I entered my rage and started hacking at the archers. Share Teel was dismembered by the knights, Edwin fell to a backstab and Viconia was blasted by a spell. With Dorn and myself heavily wounded we came out victorious. But it was a very close call. That gave me pause. If this Sarevok fellow could hire men that capable, maybe he also hired the armored figure that killed Gorion in that very first night of my journey? Maybe. I will need to confront him about it.
After we resurrected the dead weight and looted the valuables we finally found a leader of the Iron Throne hiding in a cupboard. He told us that the master of the Iron Throne, a man named Rieltar was actually at Candlekeep. Candlekeep! Of all the places. We quickly gutted the guy and collected some written evidence to present to Eltan for my reward.
He gave us the gold and a tome to access Candlekeep. Oh well. Time to head back to where it all started. And hopefully get the chance to burn it all down.
18. Flamerule
We arrived at Candlekeep and were ambushed by a cadre of Ogre Mages. They were apparently promised 10.000 gold by “the son of murder”. What is it with the nicknames, really? We killed them before they could get any magic off. I presented the book from Eltan to the Gatekeeper and we were let inside.
Ahhhh Candlekeep. The smell of books, the mumbling of monks and the warm feeling of a deep desire to burn it to the ground. I did not spend much time reminiscing and went straight to the keep. I was halted by Cadderly, an associate of Gorion who tried to lecture me. Bah.
Inside the keep more monks tried to talk to me. Why does every old crook in this damnable place thinks he can just come and talk to me? Because they did so when I was just a child who couldn’t resist? Not anymore. Try me and I kill you all you foolish, booksucking bastards.
More interesting was an encounter with a fellow named Koveras. He had intimate knowledge of the night Gorion was murdered. Hm. He left before I could inquire more. Upstairs I entered Gorions old room. I found a note. It informed me of my true heritage.
.
.
.
I am not just the foster son of an old fool. I am the son of god. The god of murder. I am the son of Bhaal.
AND YOU KEPT THAT FROM ME YOU INSUFFERABLE, THRICE CURSED BASTARD!
My true heritage. My true lineage. Now everything makes sense. The warm feeling I get while killing. The joy I get from seeing the life drained from a sentient being. The exhilaration when I am spilled with blood and gore from my enemies while their life force leaves them. That is me. That is my destiny. I am the son of a god. I will become a god.
I gave the scroll to Edwin to burn it. I fully expect him to read it beforehand. So he shall. So he will know who .. .what .. I am. And so he and everyone else who decided to join me … serve me … knows that they should never cross me. Or they will find murder coming for them.
With newfound resolve … with newfound ambition I searched the rest of the keep for the leaders of the Iron Throne. I found them in the big reading hall. Their leader, Rieltar tried to mock me, insinuating that I wouldn’t dare to attack them right under the noses of the monks. Doesn’t he know who I am? Doesn’t he know what I will become?
I straight up charged him and smashed him to the ground with a single strike from my flail. His frail bones broken I could see … I could feel the life draining from him. His comrades didn’t fare much better with the rest of my party swarming them and hacking them to pieces. Whatever precious books they have been reading were now thick with blood.
I smiled when the Watchers approached and announced that they would apprehend us. I willingly agreed. I broke out of the stupid prison when I was but a child after roughing up that emissary from Luskan. With my current power the prison won’t hold me for a minute.
Well as it turned out they reinforced the bars and it would be quite difficult to escape. Thus I had to endure the endless sermon of Ulraunt. We share a mutual disgust for each other so he was very gleeful when he announced that he would send me to Baldurs Gate to die. Strong words from someone hiding behind metal bars.
At last Tethoril came and send us into the catacombs via a dimension door spell. Good man Tethoril. Maybe I will give him a warning before burning Candlekeep to the ground.
We explored the catacombs and found some undead, spiders and more magical tomes. Closer to the surface we encountered doppelganger who pretended to be people I knew from Candlekeep. Phlydia, Hull, Fuller, Winthrop. Too bad they turned to their original form before attacking. I really would have liked to punch all those stupid faces to bloody pulp! Sadly that only happened to the Doppelgangers of Arkanis and Deder, since they didn’t change. Maybe they were the real deal? Just the better!
[Authors Note: Somehow killing Arkanis und Deder felt like the worst deed done by Groshuk yet. I was so shocked to realize that you are attacked by those jolly two fellows when your reputation is low.]
So for this playthrough this means that I will skip any narrative of the Tales of the Swordcoast content and probably skip right to the Dukes and the final battle (I didn't do many screenshots). And then I will go right into Siege of Dragonspear, which I am pretty excited about. I literally know nothing about the expansion except about the end boss.
This is awesome, hope you finish it some day.
Hope you do find the Groshuk save. As a plan B you could also recreate Groshuk and start SoD stand alone. Proper gear for yourself Edwin, Viconia and Dorn could be consoled in at the appropriate times.