Cleansing the Sword Coast of Evil - A Lawful Good (Stupid) Playthrough
Gurkengelee
Member Posts: 56
After having started but never completed a Chaotic Evil playthrough eons ago, I thought it would be time to try the opposite. So this time I will try to complete a Lawful Good playthrough, featuring Garreth the Undead Hunter.
In this game I will roleplay (and maybe actually use) the Detect Evil ability of the Paladin class and kill any evil creature I happen upon. Nothing and no one will be save in my quest to rid the Sword Coast of Evil.
I will try to do record the playthrough in a narrative way, by recording the journal entries of Garreth. It probably won't be that detailed, so I do not get burned out while playing the game. But enough foreplay, lets start cleansing.
2. Mirtul 1368
Something is happening. After spending all 20 years of my life behind the guarded walls of Candlekeep, my father Gorion told me this morning, that we are leaving. He gave me some gold coins to spend with Winthrop and asked me to meet him at the library.
I am not sure how I feel about this. Excited? Certainly. We will leave Candlekeep and see the world! Side by side with Gorion, we can make a difference in the world. But I also feel fear. Why the sudden change? Why does my father not tell me, where we are going? Something is not right, but I trust my father to tell me everything, when the time is right.
In order to set my mind straight, I took a last walk around the castle, giving my friends a heartily felt farewell. And since there are always more chores to do, I also helped out Phlydia, Dreppin, Hull and especially Reevor, who needed me to kill some rats. Why we even have cats is beyond me.
Fuller has been nice enough to gift me a magical dagger for the journey. This may come in handy, but I also purchased a heavy mace at Winthrop's. I will probably not need it with Gorion around, but if we were to encounter some of the undead beasts my father told me about .... a mace will hopefully be enough to stop them.
After I finished my chores and had a last chat with my childhood friend Imoen I told Gorion that I am ready to leave. And so we left Candlekeep, for our first journey as father and son.
In this game I will roleplay (and maybe actually use) the Detect Evil ability of the Paladin class and kill any evil creature I happen upon. Nothing and no one will be save in my quest to rid the Sword Coast of Evil.
I will try to do record the playthrough in a narrative way, by recording the journal entries of Garreth. It probably won't be that detailed, so I do not get burned out while playing the game. But enough foreplay, lets start cleansing.
2. Mirtul 1368
Something is happening. After spending all 20 years of my life behind the guarded walls of Candlekeep, my father Gorion told me this morning, that we are leaving. He gave me some gold coins to spend with Winthrop and asked me to meet him at the library.
I am not sure how I feel about this. Excited? Certainly. We will leave Candlekeep and see the world! Side by side with Gorion, we can make a difference in the world. But I also feel fear. Why the sudden change? Why does my father not tell me, where we are going? Something is not right, but I trust my father to tell me everything, when the time is right.
In order to set my mind straight, I took a last walk around the castle, giving my friends a heartily felt farewell. And since there are always more chores to do, I also helped out Phlydia, Dreppin, Hull and especially Reevor, who needed me to kill some rats. Why we even have cats is beyond me.
Fuller has been nice enough to gift me a magical dagger for the journey. This may come in handy, but I also purchased a heavy mace at Winthrop's. I will probably not need it with Gorion around, but if we were to encounter some of the undead beasts my father told me about .... a mace will hopefully be enough to stop them.
After I finished my chores and had a last chat with my childhood friend Imoen I told Gorion that I am ready to leave. And so we left Candlekeep, for our first journey as father and son.
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Gorion is dead! My father has been slain, while I had to run away. My hands are still shaking and my eyes are wet with tears of sadness and rage. We have been ambushed last night by bandits. They have been led by an armored figure that was huge and strong as if it was a demon straight from the nine hells. Gorion told me to run and I followed his orders. If I had not, I would now also lie dead. I do not understand what happened. But the figure asked Gorion to hand over his ward - me. Why? What did the fiend want with me? I must gather myself. I have to seek help and I have to find out, who those assailants were. And bring them to justice.
When the sun went up Imoen of all people catched up with me. Her company is unexpected but welcome. She was always a bit too nosy and sneaky for me, but having a familiar face around helps to brighten up my mood. We tried to run back to Candlekeep after what happened last night, but they wouldn't let us in. It seems we are barred by Ulraunts command.
Imoen told me of a letter Gorion received before we departed the castle. Maybe he still has it on his body, so we made our way back to the Lion's Way and to the ambush side. While stumbling through the wood we found a nobleman named Chase. He tried to kill himself, but - despite my sad state of mind - I managed to convince him otherwise. A tiny bit of good done today. Not enough to erase the evil that has befallen us the night before. But a start.
When we finally arrived at the ambush side, my knees surrendered. Seeing Gorions mangled body was too much and I nearly could not handle the shock. Only Imoens soothing words managed to snap me back into reality. A cruel and harsh reality. Evil is real and not just part of some grand stories told at the warm hearth of the library. Evil is real. And I will destroy it.
We found a note written by a mysterious "E". Apparently it was this "E" that convinced Gorion to leave Candlekeep. Maybe the advice was sound, given that there already have been two assassins waiting for me back in the keep. But seeing Gorion dead, the advice given in the letter rings hollow. Anyway, I have to look forward. Gorion told me to meet up with a couple called Khalid and Jaheira in a place called the Friendly Arm Inn. The mysterious letter confirms that these people are waiting there. Since I need any help I can get, Imoen and I went back to the road to look for this Inn.
We met another traveler called Kolssed who gave us some sound advice to stay on the road. We parted with good wishes and followed the road north. And encountered evil.
Two people made camp on the road. A halfling and a human. A wizard from the looks of it. I could sense the evil emanating from the pair so I gave Imoen a sign and charged!
I bashed the skull of the human in, before the pair knew what hit them. The halfling put up a fight, but I managed to block all his strikes with my shield. Righteous fury guided my hand and my mace beat the evil creature to a bloody pulp.
We searched the bodies for anything usable. With our meager possessions, anything would be of value to us. We found some potions and some scrolls and went back to following the road. A messenger named Binkos told us of a raided caravan north of a town called Beregost. It seems that Bandits are very active in this area. I will stop them.
We followed the road to the coast way. On the way we met a strange old man, clad in red robes. He asked us if we are "desperate or deranged". While this seemed odd, Gorion always teached me that there is no harm in friendlyness. So I answered that we are desperate and inquired the way to the Friendly Arm Inn. Which the old man helpfully provided and directed us northways.
Soon thereafter we encountered a crossroads and a roadsign pointing to the Inn to the north and Beregost to the south. Remembering what Binkos told us, I decided to follow the road south first. If there are caravans under attack by bandits, maybe we could help them out. Alas it was too late, and we only found death and destruction.
I felt my hatred towards the bandits grow with every dead body we encountered.
Since we couldn't do anything for the caravans anymore we made our way north. On the way we encountered an Ogre. A fearsome beast, nearly as tall as Imoen and myself combined. I must admit that my heart sank into my knees when we saw the beast and I contemplated to avoid it. But the beast must have smelled us or something, because it came straight at us. Imoen being the nimble one ran away from the beast while shouting obscenities that I cannot, in good faith, write into this journal. Meanwhile I peppered the beast with crossbow bolts until it finally lay dead.
We found some magical girdles on its body. Odd, but certainly not unwelcome. With the Sword Coast a little safer, we made our way north to the Friendly Arm Inn. And hopefully, to safety.
We finally arrived at the Friendly Arm Inn. The guards told us about the rules, that seemed to be mainly common sense. No conflicts inside the walls are allowed. I am glad about this, since it means we can finally find some rest in a safe place. After we entered the castle a woman named Joia asked us to receive her ring, which was stolen by some Hobgoblins. I gladly accepted the task. Finally we can start to make the Sword Coast safe again.
The feeling of safety came to an abrupt stop, when we were approached by a green robed wizard. I sensed the aura of evilness from him and did not bother to answer his question about my identity. We attacked him, but he was more prepared than the last ones. He cast some kind of mirror image spell, quadrupling himself. But some swings of my mace and some lucky shots by Imoen cut through his defenses and we were able to dispatch him. Despite our victory an eerie chill filled me when I searched his body. Upon him the wizard had a scroll, calling for an assassination. My assassination. Why would someone want my dead? I have never left Candlekeep until yesterday!
We finally made it inside the inn. I took my time to scan our surroundings and noticed a menacing looking half-orc in the corner. My suspicions were correct and I detected a heavy presence of evil coming from the figure. We attacked the creature, since the laws of hospitality certainly do not extend to evil, do they?
On his body we found a sword of terrible wickedness. We brought it to the nearby temple for destruction or safekeeping.
Then we finally met Khalid and Jaheira, Gorions old travel companions. They figured that Gorion must be dead and consoled me. It was a welcome feeling to have friends in these dark times. We spend the night in the Inn and they filled me in on their quest to investigate Nashkel. Apparantly there is an ongoing iron crises in the area and all iron is mined in Nashkel. Since there is obviously evil at work here, I was eager to agree to go to Nashkel with them. This is also what Gorion would have wished of me.
After talking to several other residents of the inn, notably a dwarf named Unshey and a gnome named Landrin, we left the establishment on the next morning. Before heading to Nashkel we tracked down the Hobgoblins who stole Joias ring. We peppered them with bolts, arrows and bullets and retrieved the ring to its rightful owner.
Then we made our way south, to Beregost.
When we arrived at Beregost I must admit, that I was overwhelmed. The size, the noise, the people. This city was so different from the cloistered walls of Candlekeep. For the first time in days my sadness and anger made way for a feeling of exploration and excitement. But alas, evil was never sleeping, not even here.
Only a couple of minutes after our arrival we met an Half-Elf mage named Neera. She was confronted by some obviously evil red mages and we stepped in to protect her. The fight was short and brutal, but we managed to dispatch all attackers.
Neera asked to join us and since I can't leave her on her own devices, while being hunted by evil wizards, I agreed. While strolling around the city we also met an evil dwarf. He claimed to be the shop owner but I find it more likely that an evil creature like he killed the rightful owner and we were just in time to catch him. Without hesitation, we killed the creature. But our quest to rid Beregost of evil was not yet done.
The town crier informed us of a mad cleric, running around raising a zombie army. I made a mental note to track this hellspawn down and end it for good. There was also a reward by the temple of the morning, which would greatly help us in our travels. In an Inn named Feldepost's we had an encounter with an angry patron named Marl. I managed to calm him down, and we shared a drink over his dead son. I promised Marl that I will avenge his boy, when I get the chance. Shortly thereafter we met a man named Garrik who hired us as mercenaries for a singer named Silke. But as it turned out, this woman was an evil sorceress! So we peppered her with bolts and saves three innocent men from an awful fate.
Garrik offered to join us, but seeing that he has been in league with an evil witch, I was not inclined to trust him. So I send him on his way. In the nearby Inn we were then ambushed by a heavily armored dwarf. Another assassin and this one came close to fulfilling his objective. Only Jaheiras healing magic kept me from falling to the evil dwarfs axe! In the end we prevailed and according to a note on his body, the price on my head has risen to 350 gold coins. I still have no idea who wants my dead and why.
Our last task was to cleanse Landrin's home of spiders. I heard about giant spiders but it is something entirely different, to encounter them in reality. I blocked their attacks with my shield, while my companions took them out with their ranged weapons. I will never forget the glint of eight evil eyes staring at me, while trying to sink their venomous teeth into my skin. It seems that nature itself can be evil also.
We told Landrin about our success and then took the south road to Nashkel.
Today we explored the roads south of Beregost. On our quest to purge all evil from these lands we successfully killed two Ogrillons, who ambushed a poor halfling. These two ruffians also held a note that was destined for Lady Mirianne back in Beregost. We also found and killed several Hobgoblins roaming the lands and picked up Zhurlong's Boots.
Lastly we encountered a partol of Flaming Fist Mercenaries who at first mistook us for bandits. For a moment I was offended, but then I congratulated the soldiers for following their duties so thoroughly. Alas we cleared the confusion, and the patrol let us go.
Before we went further south we went back to Beregost to rest and bring Mirianne the good news that her husband is still alive in Amn. Another good deed fulfilled!
Venturing further south towards Nashkel we found the roads to be infested with Hobgoblins and human bandits. We killed them all and hopefully other travelers will now find it easier to pass between Beregost and Amn. But for a family of three our help came to late. A woman and two children have been massacred by the hobgoblins. They had one last trinket on them, marking them as members of the Colquetle family. After we cleared the roads we made haste back to Beregost, to inform Mr. Colquetle of their gruesome fate as tactfully as I could manage. Still, the demise of those innocent people filled me with an inner rage and with renewed determination, to burn out all the evil in this world.
We finally arrived at Nashkel! I can't quite believe that we are now in Amn, a totally different country. But even here, we are not safe from evil. Another assassin ambushed us in the inn, when we just wanted to rest for the night.
We killed her and according to a note on her corpse, I am now worth 680 gold coins. I feel that my initial fear of these assassins now became a kind of grim proud. It shows that I am disturbing evil and am making a difference. Gorion would be so proud.
Speaking of making a difference we talked to the mayor of the town and agreed to investigate the mines. It seems that all iron that comes out of the mines is brittle and not good for producing anything long-lasting. On our stroll through the town, we also met another red cloaked wizard, like the ones hunting Neera. He was obviously evil, so we peppered him with arrows before he knew what hit him.
We met another evil wizard on the local carnival. He threatened to kill an innocent women and we could not let that happen.
Sadly he managed to finish his devilish kill spell before we could intervene, so all that was left, was to avenge the poor woman with the blood of her murderer. Afterwards we met a Halfling in front of a statue of a woman. He claimed that the statue was actually a princess turned to stone by evil magic and offered to sell us a scroll of stone to flesh for 500 gold coins. An exaggerated price for sure and indeed, it turned out that this person reeked of evil. It was probably him who turned the poor woman to stone in the first place! So I cut of his head and then we took the scroll of his body and used it to rescue a petrified woman.
She turned out to be a priest of tempus named Branwen. Apparantly she was petrified by a mage named Tranzig. What is with all these evil mages? Does magic corrupt the soul of people? I will have to be wary of Neera, if that is the case.
Oh damn, have to check that. Hold on, I hope he didn't run away.
Edit: Ok I had to reload the chapter 2 auto save and replayed the section. Killing Zeke costs 6 reputation, but did not cause my paladin to fall. I amended the entry above accordingly.
(Why yes, I am trying to make things harder on Garreth. Because he really does need that wakeup call.)
We are finally back at Nashkel, after our adventures brought us a couple of days journey to the west of the coast. The reason for this trip came in the form of a mighty warrior asking us to help him rescuing his witch. While a bit odd, the warrior seemed like a good fellow and so we naturally agreed to help him. He informed us that his mistress was held captive in a Gnoll Stronghold. So we send Neera back to the Friendly Arm Inn and ventured west until we found the keep. Nothing noteworthy happened in the meantime, except that we stumbled upon a winter wolf, whose pelt I am now carrying.
In the stronghold we fought our way through waves of the evil monsters. I even used a charge of an amulet that I purchased back in Nashkel and sent a fireball towards a group of particularly big ones.
We finally found and rescued the witch Dynaheir. Apparantly she is from Rashemen, a land I only know rumors about. But she seems to be a decent sort, so we parted ways with Branwen and are now accompanied by the rashemen pair of Minsc and Dynaheir. We explored the area for a bit and found a magical book in an old tomb. Maybe this will get us back to Candlekeep, when the time comes?
Anyhow, we are now fully rested and restocked and prepare to venture into the Nashkel Mines.
We arrived at the Nashkel Mines and met a gnome named Galtok, who asked for our help. Of course we offered it and just in time, since the poor gnome was followed by a band of Kobolds. We quickly dispatched of them. Still, this seemed odd. We never encountered such a big group of kobolds in our travels yet.
Next we met Prism, the artist who stole a pair of emeralds, which the bounty collector Oublek back in Nashkel informed us about. He also mistook us for Greywolf. I corrected him and he had the audacity to ask us, if we would protect him, while he finishes his art. He even offered us a bribe! Of course we did not accept this corruption and told him to hand over the emeralds for the bounty. Sadly he went insane and attacked us, so we were forced to kill the poor man. At least the stolen emeralds are now in our safekeeping.
[Authors Note: Playing lawful good makes you missing out on Varscona. That hurts.]
After this sad encounter we made our way to the mines proper. The foreman, Emerson, let us enter the mines with a wish of good luck. Apparantly not only the iron is brittle, miners and guards alike are vanishing inside the mines. There must be some deep rooted evil inside. And indeed after hearing rumors and hushed whispers, deeper in the mine we encountered miner Beldin who called out, that he was followed by "yipping-demons". I could not have guessed what sort of creature that must be, but we swore to defend him no matter what. Turns out it was another band of kobolds hunting the miner for sport. We returned fire and allowed Beldin to safely escape the ambush.
The deeper into the mines we got, the more kobolds we encountered. Some of them carried vials filled with a strange liquid, that even the witch Dynaheir could not identify. And after a long and arduous descent we finally found the mastermind behind the terror in the mines. A half-orc cleric named Mulahey set up his lair in an underground dome.
Battle ensued and after the evil cleric was peppered with bolts and magic missiles he asked for surrender. Of course such an evil beast cannot be allowed to live, so I denied it. Seconds later his bloody corpse lay on the ground and the rest of his servants were mowed down by Minsc.
On his corpse we found two letters by a certain Tazok. It seems Mulahey was only a cog in a much more complex machine. Our next lead is a man named Tranzig, who apparantly resides in Feldepost Inn. Tranzig ... that must be the mage who petrified Branwen. We have to be careful when dealing with him.
We found a rather steep climb back to the surface. Finally being able to breath fresh air again felt good. But we were promptly ambushed by a group of female mercenaries who were much more powerful than all the assassins beforehand. Apparantly they were send because we interfered in the business of the "Iron Throne"? I have no idea what that means, but the ensuing battle was chaotic. Dynaheir managed to kill one of the assailants with her wand of cold, but was in return killed by a discharge of electricity. My necklace managed to kill the enemy thief, but Minsc was peppered with magical fire arrows and burned to a crisp corpse. Eventually we won, suffering from heavy wounds.
Seeing Minsc and Dynaheir dead fills my heart with sorrow and anger. Their corpses grow cold as I write this, just as Gorions has. I can only console myself with the fact, that they died for the cause of good. Even the hamster died a fighter, scratching the eye out of one of the enemy clerics.
Wounded we stumbled upon a screaming man, pressing a dagger into my hand, asking me to return it.
A moment later it became clear what he meant, when we met an undead beast, asking for the dagger. Of course I will not deal with such a monstrosity and so battle commenced. The fiend was unbelievably strong. And immune to all of our weapons! In desperation I swung the dagger the man gave me and finally I was able to inflict a wound. Hastily I drank a potion of hill giant strength, since I felt to not have enough punch with the dagger. The monstrosity gave as good as it took and while we managed to defeat the thing, we had to rest inside the tomb, since I blacked out.
[Authors Note: I play without SCS this time, but the game is still pretty difficult if you do not overlevel the encounters and grab all the fancy magic items beforehand. I had to reload this fight 6 times and the amazons before 3 times, since Garreth got killed that much.]
We also encountered another wizard - a mad one this time. He tried to create and control gelatinous creatures and wanted to cast a spell without proper testing. I called him out and indeed he created a couple of green slimes before running away. We had to clean up his mess.
Finally, battered and bruised but not defeated, we made our way back to Nashkel.
Try to be honest with yourself - Garreth is "lawful stupid".
Yep, that's absolutely true. And I kinda love it!
Back in Nashkel, we gave the emeralds back to Oublek. That we were forced to kill Prism still weighs heavily on my conscience.
We also reported back to Berrun Ghastkill and told him that an evil half-orc cleric was behind the poisoning of the mines. We showed him the brownish liquid we found down below and he told us to see the smith in Beregost for further investigation. We got a handsome reward of 900 gold coins for our aid. We spend a couple of coins in the nearby temple to receive much needed healing. A good choice as it turned out, since we were expected by yet another assassin!
The monk, Rasaad, helped out in the fight and afterwards I asked him to join our group. He seems to be a decent fellow and happily agreed. We spend the night in the inn, drinking to our fallen comrades. At night I had the most peculiar dreams. I dreamt of Candlekeep and Gorion and of Mulahey in the mines. The dreams were scary and hopeful at the same time. On the next day I discovered that I somehow could heal wounds, just like Jaheira could. I cannot explain this ability, for I am no cleric. Maybe the concept of goodness itself took a liking to my cause and decided to support me.
We had a lead of the mage Tranzig back in Feldepost's Inn so we made our way back north. We were intercepted by the old man we already met and he revealed to be Elminster, the famous mage! Why a being like that would take interest in my action is beyond me, but the help however small is certainly welcome. For some reason he made comment, that I am "straddling the morality fence"? I do not understand the comment since all I did since leaving Candlekeep was smiting evil wherever it could be found.
My actions were even recognized by the Flaming Fist when an Officer named Val called out to me. She told me about her peculiar situation, that she is unable to return to Baldurs Gate with the Bandits around in force. She offered me to pay a handsome sum per bandit scalp that we bring her. Afterwards we went to the smithy and gave Taerom the vial from the mines. Apparantly he knows someone who can reverse the effects of the iron crisis. We spend nearly all our gold on magic weaponry for the adventures to come.
Better equipped we went to Feldepost and confronted Tranzig. The mage put up a good fight, but with our new weapons we struck through his arcane defenses and killed the villain.
On his body we found an note directing us to Larswood or Peldvale. But before we are following this lead I decided to explore the surrounding areas first. My reasoning is, that the encounter with the assassin group showed us, that we need better equipment and more experience to be able to deal with the evil yet to come. Also we had to hunt down more bandits for officer Val and scouring the surrounding wilderness would hopefully give us plenty of opportunity to do so.
This seems to be a good time as any to write down this first part of our travels. We made good progress and met a ranger named Kivan. He was also on the hunt for the ogre named Tazok, that we are also looking for. So it was only natural to team up. He turned out to be an excellent shot with the longbow. We killed some gnolls and flesh golems and met a powerful mage named Thalantyr. He had a lot of arcane items for sale, but since the witch Dynaheir tragically died we do not have a spellcaster to take advantage of them.
So we headed further to the coast where we freed a nereid from her ogre slave master. This encounter is noteworthy since she managed to kill Khalid with an enforced kiss. It took me and Kivan all our strength to keep Jaheira from bashing the creatures skull in. Luckily the nereid brought Khalid back to life and when her slave master appeared, we peppered him with bolts and arrows.
Afterwards we headed east and cleaned the area around the temple of Lathander of hobgoblins and vampiric wolves. Then we had the strangest of encounters. We met a ghoul and the moment I was raising my crossbow it started to talk. It named itself Korax and claimed it wanted to be our friend. And indeed I could not sense any evil coming from the creature. My hand wavered for a moment. It was still an undead. But if it is not evil and I shoot it, isn't that an evil action in itself? Wouldn't that just be my prejudices acting? So I lowered my crossbow and accepted his offer.
And what a good decision this was. It turned out that the area was infected with Basilisks. They could turn us into stone with a mere gaze. But Korax was immune to this magic and so he drew the beasts attention while we were shooting from afar. And apparantly this whole area was set up by a gnome named Mutamin, who wanted statues for his garden. Bah, this sickens me and with Korax help we put the madman down. We still had a Stone to Flesh scroll at hand and managed to save one woman, Tamah, from her gruesome fate.
Also in the area was a band of adventurers who started to mock us, when we met them. While I didn't want to fight them just because they goaded us, I noticed that two of the group members reeked of evil. So I lobbed a fireball at them from my necklace and we killed the rest with bolts and arrows. Sadly they managed to destroy Korax in the process. I cannot believe that I actually felt grief for that undead monstrosity.
After the battles in Mutamins Garden we explored further to the north, where we met another group of Thayan wizards. They were quick in opening hostilities, but a vial of burning oil endet the conflict in a hurry.
We also met a man named Fahrington, who gifted us a protection scroll to improve our karmic essence. How very nice of him! Afterwards we met Bassilus, the mad cleric. Apparantly he raised an army of undead to act as his "family". What a sick man. I was glad when we put him and his minions to rest.
We also had several other encounters, most noteworthy with the famous ranger Drizzt Do'Urden! The only example of his kind to not be an evil murdering psychopath. He had an interesting idea for us: Trying to infiltrate the bandit organisations in order to be able to strike at their leader. While playing cloak & dagger seems a bit ... odd, I think it is sage advice.
There was also the matter of Brage, the former captain of the Nashkel guard. We heard the reports that he slaughtered his own family, but when we met him, I did not sense any evil. We managed to disarm him and bring him peacefully to the temple of Nashkel. As it turns out he somehow got in the posession of a cursed sword, who sent him into a madmans rage. I am glad that we gave him the chance to atone for his deeds.
We also rescued a man named Melicamp from his status as a chicken, killed the half ogres for Bjornin and brought a man named Samuel in desperate need for healing to the temple. Apparantly he is a deserter so he should have been brought to the flaming fist. But he was also obviously dying. So I decided it would be the right thing to do, to bring him to the temple for healing. That way he can stand trial later.
And with that we are now ready to head to the bandit camp. Kivan was already getting a bit twitchy about our lack of progress in this department. And of course he is right, we delayed bringing justice to the bandits for long enough now!
[Authors Note: Back to 16 reputation. Time to slay another innocent evil person!]
We made for Peldvale and encountered another Drow. Oppossed to the heroic Drizzt this one was clearly evil, so we slaughtered her on the spot.
Heeding the advice of Drizzt, when we next encountered a band of bandits we claimed that we would like to join their group. And lo and behold they took us to the camp. Arriving, any hopes of silently infiltrating the camp vanished when we met the ogre Tazok. Kivan instantly announced his lust for vengeance and opened fire.
The ogre fled before we could kill him and then the rest of the bandits started to attack us. With no other choice we killed our way through the camp until we found the main hideout. We brought the bandit leaders to justice and spoke with a prisoner named Ender Sai. He informed us that the organization named Iron Throne is indeed behind the bandit raids and that we should check out the Cloakwood for further investigation. We claimed several powerful magic items from our fallen foes and headed back to Beregost. We reported back to officer Val, who was happy to be ordered back to Beregost. We parted on friendly terms and I am now left with a decision on what to do next.
We will probably explore some more of the surrounding areas before heading off into the Cloakwood. I heard several rumors about a sea cave to the west and the Firewine ruins to the east. It may be worth it to check out those locations.
[Authors Note: Without SCS this whole section is pretty easy. Also 17 reputation, yay!]
It's a crazy coincidence, but I am playing a very similar RP-heavy play-through (where I'm a cavalier who kills every evil creature on sight). Check out my thread (Cedric the zealot cavalier) if you feel like it. It's based on a recent tabletop experience.