Psyche and Diomedes, Part 2
atcDave
Member Posts: 2,387
This is the continuation of my "Psyche and Diomedes" Playthrough that started with Candlekeep in the first Baldur's Gate game. I had not planned on doing a separate post for the second game, honestly in my own mind I don't really distinguish between the two of them. They're just all "Baldur's Gate" to me. But that post got massive. With 18 updates and multiple AI art renders for every one of them, the original post came to be unwieldy. Obviously transitioning from the first to the second game is a pretty rational place to split them, so here we are.
I won't reiterate information on the builds, or even the full character backgrounds here. But a few thoughts about gameplay so far. I've run Psyche through the saga before, but I was more faithful to a young Psyche on this run. Where I often set her up as some sort of warrior mage, fitting for an older version of the character, this time I only gave her two thief levels in her background to reflect a misspent youth and have run her mostly as a pure mage. Who can use a sword. That's pretty much it. She is a combat mage, that is she likes damage causing spells and area effect spells. Fitting for a young woman who married a Paladin and follows him into the thick of the action. The sword gets used mostly for dramatic effect. She will point and gesture with it, but fighting mostly means spells, or she steps back and uses a sling.
When we lost access to Imoen for Siege of Dragonspear, Psyche became the team thief. A Lawful-Good thief! Call that an experiment, that I don't think I'll repeat. As a 2nd level thief her abilities were pretty useless. I had thought boosting with Potions of Master Thievery and Potions of Power would make her viable in the role. But the Potions of Power were the problem; those are the ones that boost Find/Remove Traps, really what we most needed. But they are pretty short duration. So only useful when you *know* you're stepping into a trapped area. I mostly do, so it worked, but its very meta. I call that immersion breaking and I don't like it.
I'd also mention her strength as an issue. In PnP she started with a 4. Late in her career, through several means, it had risen to 13. And as an arch-mage she often walked around with a 25 (she was a fun character to play!). But I knew that growth wouldn't happen here, so I set it at 7. Again, in PnP it was a source of humor, but apart from knowing she couldn't do any heavy lifting, it was rarely brought up. Well computers keep score; with robes, cloak, sword, buckler, bracers, several potions and a Bag of Holding... she ran out of load and couldn't wear magic boots! As our main identifier things were constantly shuttling between characters. I don't mind a lot, inventory management is part of the game. But this gets a little hard to deal with sometimes.
But I love using her as team spokesman. This just fits her so well. Charming, Intelligent, good-natured, fearless and tough. An idealized hero and team leader, a role she will own.
Diomedes is her husband/partner/protector. He is a strong Cavalier and an aggressive warrior. He adores his wife and by any measure they are a good team. As a Paladin he's also a capable leader, and in PnP that was often his role. Here he will more often take a back seat to Psyche, except to note he has a lot more hit points in an armored shell. So whenever it looks like parlay will quickly transition into combat, Diomedes does the talking.
The team for this run will be very different from what I had in the first game. Late in this game it will very different from what I usually run. Role playing and strategic team building sometimes clash; I am trying to lean more heavily into role playing on this run, but readers may notice some exceptions. What can I say, I love a good story, but I'm a gamer too. Without further ado...
*****
I remember an ambush, some magic and getting so sleepy. Then waking up in this cage.
Apparently we escaped jail for a prison. I could see Diomedes in a cage across from me and hear Minsc and Jaheira, so my husband and some of my team was here. But I'm worried about the voices I haven't heard.
The "Hooded Man" has captured us. And I wish he'd stayed hooded, his visage is hideous. He has tortured us with magical "experiments". And I'm clearly his favorite subject. I know, he knows what I am. And I know he's a psychopath who murdered Skie Silvershield just to frame me for murder. We *must* find an escape, I know we will get no mercy from him.
Then the facility we're in comes under attack. I hear an explosion, shouting and clash of arms in the distance. Our captor runs off to see to this new business. Then Imoen arrives as an answer to prayer. She makes quick work of our locks.
We rescue Minsc and Jaheira, but Minsc delivers the sad news Dynaheir was murdered before his eyes. I try not to think about Khalid, and try to give Jaheira an assuring pat. But she'll have none of it and is all business. We need to find an escape, and find our gear if possible.
The facility is huge. A mage's lab, residence and fortress. We manage to equip ourselves with second rate equipment, much of it taken from goblins and Duergar dwarves who attacked us. I try to assess my team. Diomedes seems fine, if uncharacteristically angry. Minsc is much the same, even more righteously angry! Jaheira seems like herself, but I see that jaw clenching, she is rightly worried. Imoen is down, she's obviously been tortured, more physically tortured than the rest of us.
We fought a small group of Duergar, and Imoen made a joke about me falling asleep during our school days and not knowing what Duergar are.
I was relieved when Imoen teased me! She's down, but still with us.
This whole level of the facility has no obvious egress. We did find a door to a separate dimension, because what powerful mage wouldn't have one...
A small pocket plane, from the plane of air? Apart from a small number of mephits to fight, the sole resident was a captive Djinn. He claimed to have an item of mine, which he would happily trade for help escaping.
The resident Djinn was more captive than we were, apparently unable to leave this pocket dimension without his bottle. We agreed to find it. Did I mention this facility is quite big? We found a room with a forest in it! And three Dryad residents who were apparently our captor's concubines. They provided a name, we've been captured by Jon Irenicus. I know that name! Contrary to what Imoen says, I'm not the one who fell asleep during lessons. I know Irenicus is a frightfully powerful mage as renowned for evil as he is for his vast knowledge of the arcane. Having attracted his attention is not good news. But the dryads do have the genie's bottle! So we run back to free the friendly Djinn. He gratefully accepts his freedom, and returns to me an item I've never owned. But I know what it is! It is Sarevok's great sword. Exactly the sort of weapon Minsc likes to swing. And its a powerful magic item, so are rebuilding our assets.
We've also found a magic key to open a transport portal and get off this level!
The transport portal led us into another storeroom. And we met another prisoner. A warrior-thief from Kara-Tur named Yoshimo. He was friendly and helpful, and believes we are in the capitol city of Amn. But admits to some uncertainty about that, he was unconscious at least once when he was moved. That seems to be Irenicus' SOP. Keep the captives confused. Yoshimo joined with us, more people seems like a good idea just now!
The next room was a horror show. after defeating a few mephits we looked around and realized a dissected body was laid out on a slab. I know only a little about biology, but this looked like a grotesque classroom experiment. Maybe not a shocking find in the lair of a great villain. But then Jaheira gasped and recognized it was her husband. I tried to wrap her in a hug but she would have none of it. We continued our explorations escaping the room as quickly as we could. Jaheira won't acknowledge her grief, but I see her shaking.
This floor was nearly as big as the first one. After a number of minor fights with Irenicus' flunkies we finally found a tunnel with daylight ahead. We emerged into a rubble strewn area, part of a larger structure. Irenicus was there unleashing a massive barrage of spells against a number of masked intruders. Clearly a group of thieves and assassins. We've stepped into a war zone with very little knowledge. Imoen launched some spells at Irenicus, but then more mages teleported in and pronounced this fight (this magic?) illegal and everyone was under arrest. Again? Irenicus was not amused and casually slew six or more of the new arrivals. "Imoen, stand down, we need to get out of here and figure out what's going on". Too late. The mages teleported back out with Irenicus, and Imoen! And everything fell quiet.
For a moment I was overwhelmed. And saw Jaheira was too. We were friends and would be there for each other.
Then I stood and we were a ready team again. Jaheira identified our location as Waukeen's Promenade in the Amnish capital of Athkatla. "All use of arcane magic is illegal here, at least in public". Okay.
"Let's make sure our area is secure. Then we need sell some of what we gathered in the facility so we can get new supplies and provisions... and clean clothes."
This was a large shopping arcade so restocking supplies and gear should be no problem. As we headed out we came across a small boy, crying that something had gone wrong at the circus and he'd lost his mama. He indicated a large circus tent nearby. Maybe helping out would help us get our bearing back. On entering the tent, it was a far larger space, obviously a great illusion of some sort (does that make this illegal here?!). We met an ogre with the voice of a young woman, who insisted she was chained (we saw no chains) and under an illusion. She talked us through breaking it and we met Aerie. A young elf who explained the circus' illusionist had apparently lost his mind transformed the whole tent.
Indeed! A gnome named Kalah was building his own fantasy world. We were forced to slay him, which broke the spell. And let us reunite a young mom with her sobbing son outside.
Aerie. Sweet but a little naive. She'd lived a sheltered life as a performing slave at the circus. She was actually a winged elf, an Avariel, who recently lost her wings to abuse and infection.
From the circus we went to "The Adventurers Mart" not far away. And for the first time in many days we felt some level of normalcy. We were able to at least get basic gear for everyone, and outfit Aerie as a new team member. She is a mage and a "Fastpaw of Baervan", that is a cleric of a good-aligned gnomish deity? Interesting. She has potentially useful skills, bonus that she's likable and good-natured. But she's been sheltered and traumatized for most of her adult life. Hopefully we can be what she needs.
After shopping we found an inn and slept.
*****
A long introduction! Obviously now the adventure is off and running. I don't expect I'll continue updates with this level of detail. But I didn't think I'd do as much with BG1 either. This is a ton of fun for me. And its making me look more closely at the game from a role playing perspective which I really enjoy. I recommend this sort of "journaling" highly for really immersing in the game.
Also the team is no where near its final form yet. I have a few changes in mind I know I'll do for this run, and one other I'm considering.
The full post, with more art, is available as "Psyche and Diomedes, Part 2" at davesgaming.blog
I won't reiterate information on the builds, or even the full character backgrounds here. But a few thoughts about gameplay so far. I've run Psyche through the saga before, but I was more faithful to a young Psyche on this run. Where I often set her up as some sort of warrior mage, fitting for an older version of the character, this time I only gave her two thief levels in her background to reflect a misspent youth and have run her mostly as a pure mage. Who can use a sword. That's pretty much it. She is a combat mage, that is she likes damage causing spells and area effect spells. Fitting for a young woman who married a Paladin and follows him into the thick of the action. The sword gets used mostly for dramatic effect. She will point and gesture with it, but fighting mostly means spells, or she steps back and uses a sling.
When we lost access to Imoen for Siege of Dragonspear, Psyche became the team thief. A Lawful-Good thief! Call that an experiment, that I don't think I'll repeat. As a 2nd level thief her abilities were pretty useless. I had thought boosting with Potions of Master Thievery and Potions of Power would make her viable in the role. But the Potions of Power were the problem; those are the ones that boost Find/Remove Traps, really what we most needed. But they are pretty short duration. So only useful when you *know* you're stepping into a trapped area. I mostly do, so it worked, but its very meta. I call that immersion breaking and I don't like it.
I'd also mention her strength as an issue. In PnP she started with a 4. Late in her career, through several means, it had risen to 13. And as an arch-mage she often walked around with a 25 (she was a fun character to play!). But I knew that growth wouldn't happen here, so I set it at 7. Again, in PnP it was a source of humor, but apart from knowing she couldn't do any heavy lifting, it was rarely brought up. Well computers keep score; with robes, cloak, sword, buckler, bracers, several potions and a Bag of Holding... she ran out of load and couldn't wear magic boots! As our main identifier things were constantly shuttling between characters. I don't mind a lot, inventory management is part of the game. But this gets a little hard to deal with sometimes.
But I love using her as team spokesman. This just fits her so well. Charming, Intelligent, good-natured, fearless and tough. An idealized hero and team leader, a role she will own.
Diomedes is her husband/partner/protector. He is a strong Cavalier and an aggressive warrior. He adores his wife and by any measure they are a good team. As a Paladin he's also a capable leader, and in PnP that was often his role. Here he will more often take a back seat to Psyche, except to note he has a lot more hit points in an armored shell. So whenever it looks like parlay will quickly transition into combat, Diomedes does the talking.
The team for this run will be very different from what I had in the first game. Late in this game it will very different from what I usually run. Role playing and strategic team building sometimes clash; I am trying to lean more heavily into role playing on this run, but readers may notice some exceptions. What can I say, I love a good story, but I'm a gamer too. Without further ado...
*****
I remember an ambush, some magic and getting so sleepy. Then waking up in this cage.
Apparently we escaped jail for a prison. I could see Diomedes in a cage across from me and hear Minsc and Jaheira, so my husband and some of my team was here. But I'm worried about the voices I haven't heard.
The "Hooded Man" has captured us. And I wish he'd stayed hooded, his visage is hideous. He has tortured us with magical "experiments". And I'm clearly his favorite subject. I know, he knows what I am. And I know he's a psychopath who murdered Skie Silvershield just to frame me for murder. We *must* find an escape, I know we will get no mercy from him.
Then the facility we're in comes under attack. I hear an explosion, shouting and clash of arms in the distance. Our captor runs off to see to this new business. Then Imoen arrives as an answer to prayer. She makes quick work of our locks.
We rescue Minsc and Jaheira, but Minsc delivers the sad news Dynaheir was murdered before his eyes. I try not to think about Khalid, and try to give Jaheira an assuring pat. But she'll have none of it and is all business. We need to find an escape, and find our gear if possible.
The facility is huge. A mage's lab, residence and fortress. We manage to equip ourselves with second rate equipment, much of it taken from goblins and Duergar dwarves who attacked us. I try to assess my team. Diomedes seems fine, if uncharacteristically angry. Minsc is much the same, even more righteously angry! Jaheira seems like herself, but I see that jaw clenching, she is rightly worried. Imoen is down, she's obviously been tortured, more physically tortured than the rest of us.
We fought a small group of Duergar, and Imoen made a joke about me falling asleep during our school days and not knowing what Duergar are.
I was relieved when Imoen teased me! She's down, but still with us.
This whole level of the facility has no obvious egress. We did find a door to a separate dimension, because what powerful mage wouldn't have one...
A small pocket plane, from the plane of air? Apart from a small number of mephits to fight, the sole resident was a captive Djinn. He claimed to have an item of mine, which he would happily trade for help escaping.
The resident Djinn was more captive than we were, apparently unable to leave this pocket dimension without his bottle. We agreed to find it. Did I mention this facility is quite big? We found a room with a forest in it! And three Dryad residents who were apparently our captor's concubines. They provided a name, we've been captured by Jon Irenicus. I know that name! Contrary to what Imoen says, I'm not the one who fell asleep during lessons. I know Irenicus is a frightfully powerful mage as renowned for evil as he is for his vast knowledge of the arcane. Having attracted his attention is not good news. But the dryads do have the genie's bottle! So we run back to free the friendly Djinn. He gratefully accepts his freedom, and returns to me an item I've never owned. But I know what it is! It is Sarevok's great sword. Exactly the sort of weapon Minsc likes to swing. And its a powerful magic item, so are rebuilding our assets.
We've also found a magic key to open a transport portal and get off this level!
The transport portal led us into another storeroom. And we met another prisoner. A warrior-thief from Kara-Tur named Yoshimo. He was friendly and helpful, and believes we are in the capitol city of Amn. But admits to some uncertainty about that, he was unconscious at least once when he was moved. That seems to be Irenicus' SOP. Keep the captives confused. Yoshimo joined with us, more people seems like a good idea just now!
The next room was a horror show. after defeating a few mephits we looked around and realized a dissected body was laid out on a slab. I know only a little about biology, but this looked like a grotesque classroom experiment. Maybe not a shocking find in the lair of a great villain. But then Jaheira gasped and recognized it was her husband. I tried to wrap her in a hug but she would have none of it. We continued our explorations escaping the room as quickly as we could. Jaheira won't acknowledge her grief, but I see her shaking.
This floor was nearly as big as the first one. After a number of minor fights with Irenicus' flunkies we finally found a tunnel with daylight ahead. We emerged into a rubble strewn area, part of a larger structure. Irenicus was there unleashing a massive barrage of spells against a number of masked intruders. Clearly a group of thieves and assassins. We've stepped into a war zone with very little knowledge. Imoen launched some spells at Irenicus, but then more mages teleported in and pronounced this fight (this magic?) illegal and everyone was under arrest. Again? Irenicus was not amused and casually slew six or more of the new arrivals. "Imoen, stand down, we need to get out of here and figure out what's going on". Too late. The mages teleported back out with Irenicus, and Imoen! And everything fell quiet.
For a moment I was overwhelmed. And saw Jaheira was too. We were friends and would be there for each other.
Then I stood and we were a ready team again. Jaheira identified our location as Waukeen's Promenade in the Amnish capital of Athkatla. "All use of arcane magic is illegal here, at least in public". Okay.
"Let's make sure our area is secure. Then we need sell some of what we gathered in the facility so we can get new supplies and provisions... and clean clothes."
This was a large shopping arcade so restocking supplies and gear should be no problem. As we headed out we came across a small boy, crying that something had gone wrong at the circus and he'd lost his mama. He indicated a large circus tent nearby. Maybe helping out would help us get our bearing back. On entering the tent, it was a far larger space, obviously a great illusion of some sort (does that make this illegal here?!). We met an ogre with the voice of a young woman, who insisted she was chained (we saw no chains) and under an illusion. She talked us through breaking it and we met Aerie. A young elf who explained the circus' illusionist had apparently lost his mind transformed the whole tent.
Indeed! A gnome named Kalah was building his own fantasy world. We were forced to slay him, which broke the spell. And let us reunite a young mom with her sobbing son outside.
Aerie. Sweet but a little naive. She'd lived a sheltered life as a performing slave at the circus. She was actually a winged elf, an Avariel, who recently lost her wings to abuse and infection.
From the circus we went to "The Adventurers Mart" not far away. And for the first time in many days we felt some level of normalcy. We were able to at least get basic gear for everyone, and outfit Aerie as a new team member. She is a mage and a "Fastpaw of Baervan", that is a cleric of a good-aligned gnomish deity? Interesting. She has potentially useful skills, bonus that she's likable and good-natured. But she's been sheltered and traumatized for most of her adult life. Hopefully we can be what she needs.
After shopping we found an inn and slept.
*****
A long introduction! Obviously now the adventure is off and running. I don't expect I'll continue updates with this level of detail. But I didn't think I'd do as much with BG1 either. This is a ton of fun for me. And its making me look more closely at the game from a role playing perspective which I really enjoy. I recommend this sort of "journaling" highly for really immersing in the game.
Also the team is no where near its final form yet. I have a few changes in mind I know I'll do for this run, and one other I'm considering.
The full post, with more art, is available as "Psyche and Diomedes, Part 2" at davesgaming.blog
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We got a fresh start on things the next morning. We came up with two things to look into; most obvious was our missing teammate. We had learned Imoen had been arrested by a group known as the "Cowled Mages" who were responsible for overseeing and regulating arcane magic in Athkatla. Word was, most of those taken for practicing "magic without a license" were rarely seen again. We could go straight to the government district, but Jaheira had contacts at a seedy dive known as "The Copper Coronet" in the Slums district. This seemed like a good place to get information, we could decide on further action from there.
Second, we had learned from questions at the "Adventurer's Mart" yesterday, that an older sage type magical researcher named Nem would be a good contact to help us with the broken "Soultaker Dagger" we had found in Irenicus' lab. I desperately wanted to find my missing sister, but no doubt if we could fix things so Skie could be resurrected it would clear my name of murder charges. The rational part of me knows the Skie problem is likely more urgent. And she has family mourning a dead daughter. Nem can also be found working in the slums. So that was our destination.
On entering the slums we met a man named Gaelan Bayle. He claimed to represent an organization that could help us free Imoen. After a chat, we learned this help wouldn't come cheap. We were told captured mages were not held locally, and there were organizational and logistical challenges in getting it done. Not sure how much of a snow job this was, but we seemed to have a solid contact if we could raise enough money. Yoshimo answered several questions afterwards, this was clearly the local Thieves Guild making contact with us. Known locally as the Shadow Thieves, they are a big organization. Diomedes voiced a strong suspicion they were who was attacking Irenicus yesterday. If so, we can likely trust they ARE enemies of our enemy.
Jaheira still thought checking in with her contacts was a good idea, so we set out for the Copper Coronet. On the way there, we met an elderly mage who fit the description of Nem. She started with an offer to cure any magical rash (!). I've not heard that line before! I explained, we'd lost a friend we were pretty sure was trapped in this blade.
Nem gasped, "that's the Soultaker! I wouldn't have thought it was even possible to damage it so!"
She was immediately very curious. I understand her type! So much like Gorion... She offered to look into it for us, but wanted the damaged blade to do research. We parted with the promise to meet back up in three days and discuss her findings.
Entering the Copper Coronet is an assault on the senses. Its a large building and loud, food is cooking, games of chance in progress, and armed guards scattered throughout, especially watching doors leading to private rooms. I suggested to Yoshimo I'd like him to work separately from us for a time, and let us know if he learned anything pertinent. We heard a young woman asking for help, "I've helped so many of you, will no one listen to me?" I introduced myself and learned she was Nalia. A woman who said her father's lands had been over-run by monsters and she needed help.
Monster hunting is right up our alley, count us in! We asked Nalia to join us and we'd take care of her.
A loud man, claimed to be a "Lord Jierdan Firkraag" was asking for similar help. He offered a specific 10000 gold piece bounty for help. He told us how to find his land, we now had a couple of jobs lined up.
I introduced myself to the proprietor, Lehtinan, and immediately sensed I was talking to a human slimeball. He hinted around at all the "extra" sorts of amusements he had to offer. Diomedes nudged me and gave the nod, this man was evil as he seemed. I suggested we'd love to partake, and were granted admittance to the back rooms. I'd never seen such a flagrant evil in any human city. They were staging death matches between slaves, for gambling and amusement. We ended it. The moment reminded me of when we'd encountered those necromancers a couple weeks ago. No words were said, we all drew weapons at the same time. We quickly fought our way to the back where slaves were held in cells.
"Give me the keys or I'll take them from your dead hand".
Diomedes was really not amused. He gutted the jailkeeper. Really fast. We had a small melee with a number of wild animals that were released. But we had the keys now and released all the gladiators. They joined with us and we pacified all the guards very quickly. The leader among them was man named Hendak, Diomedes handed him the keys and said "congratulations, you own a bar". Hendak told us they'd had children who were being held at another site in the slum district. There was a tunnel from the Copper Coronet off to that site, which we used. And killed more slavers. That was an unexpected turn of events.
We were all a little spent at that point, and decided to enjoy the hospitality of Hendak for the night. We started off for Nalia's home the next morning. Before even leaving the city we met a messenger from a town called Trademeet, that said they had been under attack from Druids and wild animals. Well that seems a little strange! Jaheira thought this demanded investigation. So we have another task.
Just outside of town we found a poisoned man, beset by thugs. This led to another little detour and an encounter with Harpers. Which also led to Jaheira admitting for the first time that she was one (although Khalid had admitted it, not so long ago). So the following morning we set out for Nalia's home again.
We finally made it out to Nalia’s family home the next day. It was a good size castle, and we saw a small wooden palisade outside the walls. This was all that was left of the local troops, barely a dozen of them. The invaders were a mixed force of trolls and yuan-ti, those always ill-tempered snake-men. Obviously this was an organized and determined assault, I’d not heard of either of these types striking with that kind of determination in human controlled lands.
Nalia of course knew how to find a hidden sally port, so that’s where we entered. We fought a number of trolls.
We tried and failed to save a few servants. We found one who was well hidden but couldn’t report much except that most of what he’d seen were in fact, trolls. He also embarrassed Nalia for her tendency to sneak out at night. That was good for a chuckle, but the situation was grim enough it didn’t last long. We cleared the main floor and opened the drawbridge so the troops outside could secure what we’d cleared.
Upstairs we ran into more trolls and a Yuan-ti mage who might have been the leader? Or a leader anyway. We did manage to rescue Nalia’s aunt, who was barricaded with a guard in her chambers (and a thoroughly unpleasant lady!).
I think I liked the trolls better…
And freed another guard from a Charm spell. We last searched the cellar and found a number of huge trolls desecrating a large chapel. The body of Nalia’s father was also in the room. Nalia’s grief and loss were palpable. I’ve seen far too much of this recently. Then Nalia shocked us with an unexpected proposal. She was the legal heir, but would not be considered a legitimate power to hold the noble title on her own. She suggested appointing Diomedes as her master-of-arms who held the land secure. This was an odd concept for me to understand, as near as I can tell mages are not considered an adequate power base for a noble title? I think a lot of local nobles would not be happy with the outcome if they faced young Nalia in a dual! For the record, I would not recommend THAT as a means of making decisions either. But Nalia is really opposed to any nobles with a claim getting ahold of this land.
Later research I did indicates Nalia gave us a tremendous gift. Of course its the sort of gift many would not want, it comes with huge responsibilities. But in essence, Diomedes (and I) now rule this land with only the caveat *we do so in Nalia’s family name*.
Almost as soon as this was settled, Jaheira received a summons back to the Harper base in Athkatla. We let her go immediately, and the rest of the team went back to the city the next morning. We met Jaheira there and she requested we join her for an interview with the Harpers. It was obvious pretty quickly this was a trap. Jaheira was outraged at being used this way. She joined with us in fighting off an attack. She has said with no doubt this was not an official or sanctioned act by Harpers, but I worry even more for her about what the cost will be of her loyalty to me.
From here we met up with Nem. It was a big “good news/bad news” sort of situation. We could free Skie’s soul from her prison, but it would come with a cost. A physical cost to me to open a portal, and someone would have to take her place. Find someone who would willingly be entrapped in an extra-planar void? I was torn, my immediate thought was “no way”. But Skie herself was an innocent in this. Nem suggested a volunteer was possible if not easy. We did find someone terminally ill, who feared for their eternal fate (with good reason we learned). Huh. I still don’t like it, but this seems as close to just as we can get. So we travelled into the dagger, and freed Skie’s soul. Leaving an elderly Halfling woman named Pyll behind in her place. I will need to make sure Skie and her family know that name to give thanks for. But for now we’ve done all we can. Nem suggested, if Skie’s mortal remains were intact and she’d already received a Raise Dead spell, she should come back to life. I’m reasonable sure both those conditions had been met by her wealthy and powerful father.
Now it was time to run off for Trademeet to investigate some troublesome Druids. I hope Jaheira is up for another assault on things she holds dear! This turned out not to be extremely dramatic. Apart from the life and death stuff we deal with every day. But the town was threatened by two perils. First was a group of Djinn looking for a wayward Rakshasa, we slew the beast and the Djinn left willingly. Next was a group of Shadow Druids. I don’t get all the details, but we’ve faced some of these nuts before, back in the Cloakwood Forest. Basically a group that makes an odd choice in the eternal “man vs nature” struggle. Very strange, their leader decided she wanted to face me in personal combat instead of one of her own kind (Jaheira would have had some challenge rights under their odd Druid rules; but no, she wanted to fight me). She turned into a beast and came at me with claws. I chose Flame Bolt, Magic Missile, Flame Bolt. My Stone Skin was still intact when she went down.
We enjoyed the hospitality of the grateful residents of Trademeet afterwards. Then a messenger found Diomedes to get back to our castle.
Some merchant was complaining about thieves attacking his caravans in the area, and he was threatening foreclosure on the large number of tenants he had in the holding to make up his losses. We bought out all the debt ourselves. But it was obvious this required some attention. We would increase spending for a new militia force. And I think we need to leave someone powerful here in case serious muscle is needed.
Minsc please look at me. This isn’t a punishment and it isn’t permanent. But we need someone here who can deal with trouble. I promise we are still friends and we will still spend a lot of time together. You still need to help me with my fierceness lessens.
As before, the whole text, with more renders, is available as "Psyche and Diomedes" at davesgaming.blog
This will be a shorter update today. I thought it covered some important ground, but I did not get to do much.
*****
We traveled back to the city, we have plenty of money and its time to continue our search for Imoen. We are intercepted by a woman who wants us to reconsider our dealings with the Shadow Thieves, for a meeting with her "mistress" in the graveyard, at night. We've already battled a few vampires in the city, one even during our escape from Irenicus' lab. I can guess who this new suiter represents. The only reason I can think of to meet with a vampire is to drive a stake through them. So we continue over to Gaelan Bayle's place. As expected, he tells us how to contact the head of the Shadow thieves, and we are expected. So far, so good.
We stop at the Copper Coronet for the night, which leads to two events. First, Skie pays us a visit! That was unexpected. Funny how someone you know only casually can become the most wonderful sight you've ever seen. Words can't describe how happy I was, and what a huge relief it was to see her. It felt like there was hope in all the challenges we've faced.
Skie! What a happy surprise!
Then, on our way out in the morning we were intercepted by a messenger with news for Nalia. Her father's funeral was being held in the graveyard, now. That obviously seemed like a priority so that's where we went. It was an odd thing, we really didn't fit in. Nalia is normally the scruffiest looking of the bunch of us, yet the rest of us were the ones being insulted as "low class". The nobility of Amn is a very odd crew. Although the dwarf Hurgan Stoneblade was present, and apparently an old friend of the family. He was the one who first sent us to Durlag's Tower looking for the Soultaker Dagger. Funny.
Some threats were made, I think Nalia will still face some challenges related to her land ownership. And of course, we're now right in the middle of it.
From there we went back to Waukeen's Promenade, where we'd planned on meeting Skie for some shopping. I can just see the excitement all over Diomedes' face!
"C'mon you'll have fun!" "Maybe I can still catch the chariot races..."
On meeting up with Skie I cautiously asked how her warrior training had gone, and if she'd want to join with us in rescuing Imoen?
I knew Skie had received some martial training when she joined the Flaming Fist, and she fought with us in the War against the Crusade. As she talks I gather she's had reasonable bow and sword training, and she would like to come along! Oh boy. I think I just recruited someone with pretty marginal skills, certainly below the rest of the team. That will require some attention. Hopefully, we can convince her hold back with me, Aerie and Nalia and leave the melee to Diomedes and Jaheira.
After supper we went to the dock district to meet up with Aran Linvail and the Shadow Thieves. He explained a little about the guild war he's tied up in. I'd bet money this is about the vampires. And he offers us a magic amulet "to keep", I Identify it has having Negative Plane Protection among its powers. This will be *very* useful against vampires, I strongly suspect Aran knows more about our new foes than he's letting on.
He assures us he *will* be able to get us to Imoen, but first could we go check up on a particular dock guard? Yeah, it was a fight with a vampire. Aran is right to be worried about this. And regardless of what I might normally think of thieves, we will happily battle vampires. Even for free.
*****
Skie is not a character I ever used in the original Baldur's Gate, or even the EE when it came out. But her story is so tragic in Siege of Dragonspear. The mod "Skie: Cost of a Girl's Soul" provides a pretty satisfying way to make things right in BG2.
But a problem remains. Originally Skie was a thief. I really, really don't want a fully dedicated thief on my team. Now again, I've never run with her in BG1 at all. But it occurs to me, I have no knowledge of her alleged thieving career. I'll say, Dave's head canon, that it was never anything. Maybe an extreme teen rebellion phase, but she was never really a thief. Never anything but a bored and spoiled noble's daughter. So when she "secretly" joined the Flaming Fist that became her first ever class training. As a single class fighter. So that's how I rebuild her. A single class fighter, short bow and short sword specialist. And since she already has seen some action, she has 3000 experience. Yes, my 11th level (or so) party has just recruited a 2nd level fighter. At least as an archer she should face few direct threats. And she'll level up very quickly.
I also wanted to mention a minor thing on my AI design prompts that I've learned. Sharp eyed readers may recall I figured this out about halfway through my BG1 postings. But psyche's signature "purple wizard robes with gold trim" needed a more casual aspect. So if she's dressed down to be casual, or look scruffy (like after a shipwreck) I show her in a "purple tunic". Amazing but true! You can plainly see the difference in the two renders of her here. The first is meant to be relaxing for the night, in gameplay Skie actually wakes her up. While the second is actually geared up for a day in the city. I love the difference in looks.
We're at war with Vampires now. They can be difficult foes, obviously intelligent. And our melee team (that's still just Diomedes and Jaheira!) is at some risk. We have that Amulet of Power from Aran, which Diomedes is wearing. So he tries to draw all attention to himself. So far that's been an effective tactic. Athkatla's Graveyard District had a lot more going on than just vampires though, we first found an area loaded with mummies and wraiths. Then we found the vampires. And fought a lot of spiders in between. All in all a difficult couple of hours.
All told we probably killed a dozen vampires. The last one was a whole different sort. Powerful, and I believe ancient. She claimed to be Irenicus sister? I don't know enough about him to know how to assess that. She also made all sorts of "shocking" pronouncements about the thieves we were working with. Like apparently, the thieves guild might be a little dishonest. And they knew things they didn't tell us. Um, duh? Why does evil so often seem to assume good equals stupid? I think all of her shocking revelations were things we'd figured out when we first talked to Gaelan.
It looks like we've cleared the vampires out of Athkatla for now. But the boss lady, Bodhi, eluded us. I have a feeling we've not seen the last of her.
Its fair to say we've had other business going on. Jaheira is now a sort of wanted criminal by the Harpers? I suppose that means I am too, but its more dramatic for her, she has friends in that organization. And its been impossible for us to see if that's actually true. We were attacked by a local body of Harpers, and Jaheira questions their legitimacy to even use the name. So we'll have took into that one day, but its WAY down our list...
Nalia was briefly arrested by her fiancé. It was part of a power play by a rival noble family to seize her lands. It didn't last long, we exposed the massive corruption of the man in question and now he's in custody and Nalia is free of charges.
We ran back to the castle to take care of some business before we head off to rescue Imoen. The big thing has been getting a new militia up and working.
We have a number of new troops under arms. Training is intense as we try to make them a useful force.
Minsc has been making himself useful, he's brutal for physical conditioning. And of course, looking fierce. Nalia is getting a handle on more of the administrative work, and I believe she'll stick around indefinitely for that. She won't accompany us when we head out next. But I feel good about her staying here. I think this place is getting more secure and safe for the residents again.
The next day it was back to the city. First we found Yoshimo still around the Copper Coronet and asked him to come along with us. Then we stopped by a Dwarven Smith we'd met, a real master of arcane and custom weapons and gear, just to see if he could improve any of our recently acquired magic items. He liked the Mace of Disruption we'd found, its a potent undead destroyer and he had a trick to make it more so. We'll be ready for Bodhi next time! Then it was off to meet with Aran, today was the promised day we would set off for the special prison where the Cowled Wizards imprison mages. I don't mean to be an outlaw, but they will answer for taking my friend.
The ship's captain is a character, but I still love the boat ride! Next stop, Spellhold.
*****
Skie is already 9th level, and has Grand Mastery in Short Bow. I know how AD&D levels work, but its still amazing how fast a low level character can catch up with a higher level crew. I've seen it happen often in PnP too, for a number of reasons its more dramatic on the computer. It does give me an idea for a future BG run, the kernel of idea forming in my little grey cells...
Once we rescue Imoen the party will be in its final form. The gamer in me really wants to replace Jaheira with Keldorn. But the role player says no way. Psyche would never do that.
The full write up, including one of my favorite sight gags, is available as "Psyche and Diomedes" at davesgaming.blong
We arrived at the small harbor town of Brynnlaw with a bit of excitement. Our boisterous captain announced he was turning us over to the vampires...
There was just three of them, we were easily up to the challenge. Captain Saemon had wisely disappeared during our brief scuffle. We knew we were to meet with mage named Sanik at the Vulgar Monkey to learn how to enter Spellhold, known as the Asylum. Along the way we observed this little town had been overrun by pirates. In this case, the town being lawless may work to our advantage. We met with the young man, he was a bit of a mess! Very nervous about something; when I saw something shimmering, a golden circular disturbance. Someone was about to join us!
Get that!
Diomedes and the team were all sharp, and get it they did. An assassin said something about betraying Lady Galvena but died before any meaningful "message" was delivered. Sanik may have wet himself. Maybe he spilled his drink. We sat him down and got him calmed down. My vigilant crew standing guard helped! He did have information for us, but more urgently, Sanik had fallen in love and married one of "Lady" Galvena's girls. Yeah, that kind of lady. His new wife was supposed to join him here and they had a boat arranged to get out, but she was now very late and it seemed obvious her *owner* had taken issue. "No problem, Sanik stay here, we'll be back with your wife" ... "wait, where is she?"
We actually could have figured it out. "Lady Galvena's Festhall" was just down the street and had prominent signage. We knew, they'd be closing early tonight. And we weren't subtle. We found lady Galvena and her pet mage about to execute some poor young woman, "to make an example of her". We should have stuck around and seen to the staff's needs after. But I was concerned there were no local "authorities" who would support us, so we took Sanik's wife Claire with us back to the bar.
Their reunion was happy, and we learned there was a single Cowled Wizard representative in town who had a way into the Asylum.
We found the wizard we wanted, and he was convinced to give us his wardstone to get past the Asylum's gates. We got there quickly, and the warden greeted me by name. He offered us a tour. This didn't seem right. I noticed my team-mates were going in and out of focus. Why would they do that? Crud. We've been poisoned, betrayed by Yoshimo.
I awoke in the mad wizard's lab... again. This time we got right to the point. Well he still babbled on at length, and he told me plainly that Imoen was my sister, a Bhaalspawn like me. But soon he was activating devices and something was happening to me. I had an odd vision, Imoen telling me we could kill the beast together. A battle followed, we killed a beast that looked strangely like Sarevok. And I woke up again in a large stone chamber that seemed to be well underground. My husband and team were there. The vampire Bodhi was in an alcove high above us, and delivered the mandatory sort of villain taunts. I think we are supposed to try to escape her clutches or something? As my eyes adjusted to the dark I saw Imoen, my sister, was standing and looking a little lost nearby.
Imoen reports Irenicus has taken something important from us. He said he took our souls.
She comes around fairly quickly. Still the more subdued Imoen from Irenicus other lab. But its her, I'd know my sister anywhere. She joins with our team, and is a little surprised to see Skie is with us. I make the introduction with Aerie. Now let's find our way out!
*****
I have the old SimDing0 Questpack installed. At least a little of it. That includes the little tweak of being able to rescue Sanik. If you can kill the assassin in one round you save your contact. We did, yay team!
Escaping the Asylum took a while. Whenever it was built, it was meant as a trap for "deviant" mages. At several turns we were presented with riddles, of the logic puzzle sort. Apparently it would then trap or kill those who failed at logic. There was also a fair amount of combat; undead, minotaurs trolls and umber hulks were all present. I'm not sure how this ecosystem functions! Towards the end of the second level Bodhi came for us with a couple other vampires. What happened surprised me, I was furious at seeing her. And my wrath overcame me for a moment. I became something, some sort of beast that was an avatar of my bloodline. I won't speak its name. I scared the daylights out of the vampires! I wish I'd had my senses about me, I'd have paid money to see that! But I scared my friends too. I want nothing to do with this taint in my blood. My friends and loved ones help me find peace, I pray I don't loose my control ever again.
After the brief encounter with Bodhi we moved on to a final assessment phase. I just had to prove my sanity to the long dead Asylum Director. The man must have been extremely dedicated to his job to still be at it so many years after his death. Still, he was surprisingly laid back as phantasms go. Even more shocking, I was judged sane. I've had cause to wonder at that.
From there we were back in the main building of Spellhold. Irenicus was busy in his lab there. Imoen suggested we round up all the actual nuts and launch an all out assault on him. That we did. Irenicus launched several defenders at us, including copies of ourselves (maybe some special version of Project Image?). And we battled our old friend Yoshimo, he led the last wave of defenders. Irenicus escaped during all of this. He fled through some portal in the basement. No big surprise, we now encountered that flakey sea captain Saemon again. He suggested we could all flee the island together by boat. Our choice would seem to be follow Irenicus through a gate heading into who knows what, or sail away with sea captain we plainly don't trust. I chose Saemon for us, it seemed better than literally stepping into an unknown void. No one argued.
This did involve the hike back into town.
My warriors. Not so long ago we had Khalid, Minsc and Branwen for melee. Diomedes has become an amazing force in combat, and Jaheira is capable as well. But I often think it looks like a thin front line.
The first part of our journey involved helping Saemon steal a new boat, his was now at the bottom of the harbor. I'd complain at his scamming us, but I expect no different from his sort. And I have no objections to stealing a pirate lord's boat, that makes it fun. Fortunately the pirate lord (um, he had a name I honestly don't recall) caught us! Pretty sure we just caused a fair amount of local political instability, but it has to be better than what they had.
This boat ride proved to be a pretty short one. We were attacked by a group I'd heard of but never seen before called Githyanki. Evil terrorists who prowl the interdimensional parts of the multiverse. We were just getting a handle on them when our whole ship was pulled under the waves by Sahuagin, those ill-tempered fish-men we've met before.
Saemon disappeared in all of this, but we now stood before the Sahuagin who were demanding a service from us.
Sahuagin apparently find me ugly. I've never been called that so many different ways.
Their High Priestess of Sekolah, a profoundly heartless god of sea monsters, tasked us with finding and killing a renegade prince who had divided their realm. Actually, she privately suggested her king was the real villain of the story, and it might be better to kill him instead. Oof.
We explored the city and found the means into the prince's stronghold. We conspired with him to deceive the king and facilitate a coup. On our way back to see the king we had an interesting discussion. We thought the best course might be just kill them all. They are vicious and dangerous for all people, everywhere. Whichever side we support, I'm under no illusions we will likely have to fight our way out of here. But Diomedes mentioned the prince's top advisor was not particularly evil. That's interesting. And not going genocidal sounds preferable to us.
So we support the prince and destroy the king and his forces.
Getting ready for action, Aerie and Skie were able to hold back and do what they best.
But Sahuagin came in from the sides and Imoen was briefly forced to melee.
The prince was true to his word and let us head off after the fight. I think we'd reduced the population of those fit for combat by over 50% at this point, it might just be the prince realized the futility in betraying us. That alone qualifies him as a better ruler than his predecessor. Hopefully he'll show good judgment in more important things in the future.
From here we traveled to a great hole. That led down into the bowels of the Underdark.
"Oh my that's a long way down, I uh... I don't think I can do this Psyche" "Its the only way out from here Aerie. We'll all be together, we can do this".
*****
A lot going on here, although I think only the fight against Irenicus is potentially very difficult. We actually forced him to flee pretty quickly, Skie perforated him with her "Arrows of Dispelling" while three mages alternated anti-magic and Flame Arrow. I think he lasted two rounds. So even if my melee unit is thin, my anti-magic is potent.
At this point Diomedes has a solid 50% of party experience. He's well built as an effective warrior. I'm feeling pretty good about this whole party though. Three mages can really cause a lot of mayhem. My biggest concern, I have a couple of Lich fights coming up and I don't have Keldorn (he's my "Kill Mages Instantly" wildcard in most runs). I may be rusty on what all we can do! Diomedes does have the Mace of Disruption. But I know Breach won't work... Hmmm, I'll test Psyche's tactics soon...
The renders were challenging here, mostly fun. My starting descriptor for the Sahuagin city was "photo in a dome of air in an aquatic city built of coral and seashells" and later "blue-green light". That was most of the environment. For Sahuagin themselves I went a little different route then back in SoD, I said "eel-like fishmen with shark teeth" and "shell armor with long spears". I tweaked that a little, but that got us most of the way there.
Then I added my team in, painlessly with one exception. The Skie/Aerie portrait was brutal! First, the AI was determined to make Skie an elf too. REALLY determined. Early on, it was eight out of eight Skie was an elf. I wound up saying Human twice and putting BOTH "human ears" and "round ears" in her description. Now I could get about 1 in 4 had her as a human. I considered giving her a helmet! But that's never been her look. Add to that, the AI struggles with complicated gear like a BOW! Less than 1 in 4 look even remotely plausible. So we're looking at a low percentage of renders even in the ballpark. I had finally changed her description to including the word "archer" but "wielding a short sword". Hoping for seeing a quiver and/or a bow over her shoulder but just a sword in her hands. So that's when we finally got to the result seen here. Aerie looks a little off to me (too old, hair too short, too buxom), but is right in most details. And Skie came out nearly perfect.
I don't know why this one render was so problematic. The Diomedes and Jaheira one at top was pretty easy, and that has both a human and an elf. And then Psyche and Aerie at the end came painlessly, that even includes Aerie again. But dang, I trashed a lot of results for Skie and Aerie!
Anyway, I showed more results this time. At least one rendering of everyone on the team. And I loved the alien undersea city!
Descending into the Underdark was a terrifying experience. Of course its a name we all know, a place of dark terrors and utter evil. It was particularly hard for our Elven ladies; for Jaheira, as a Druid, its as far from the World she knows and loves as can even be imagined, it is one more assault on her stressed mind. For Aerie, it seemed to be much worse. Our Avarial friend wants to soar among the clouds, and now she’s in a hole in the ground. We barely settled onto a cavern floor when we heard an insect like chittering, investigating we found three illithids in a side cave. We slew them quickly, but they sort of symbolize everything evil and twisted.
Thankfully, 100 yards past that cave we came across a small gathering of Deep Gnome merchants. It seems like a small thing, but they were friendly faces in this place of darkness. Okay, so they wanted to sell us stuff. But they had some useful information, a “mage and neck biter” passed this way a bit ago heading for the nearby Drow city. There is also a Svrifneblin (Deep Gnome) town close by. This sounds like the Drow city will be our stop, but a whole city of Drow sounds problematic. We should reconnoiter the area first, we really need a plan.
We freed an imprisoned mage and a gnome youngster. Accidently freed a Lich! We’ll call that a good tactical exercise, a potentially difficult fight without that handy Dwarvish device we had a couple months ago. But I cast Pierce Magic (a powerful anti-magic spell), Skie had her Arrows of Dispelling, and Di and Jaheira just kicked his ***. He might have been fuzzy from a long Imprisonment, but it was good team building for us.
From there we got up to the Gnome village. We got a happy welcome due to the youngster we’d already sent home. But they had a problem with something they’d awakened in the deep. Imoen was hoping they meant a Grizzly Bear, but I think we all knew better than that. No problem, we can take care of that…
And we did. The Gnomes gave us a magic gem, a light source that could penetrate impenetrable darkness. We would need this to visit “Adalon”, a being unidentified to us but said to be of unspeakable beauty. She would have a way for us to find those we seek.
First we finished our exploring. It must be Spring, because we gave those caves a good cleaning. This means several enclaves of dangerous critters, Kua Toans, Illithids, Beholders; call it a public service.
Finally we found the cave of Adalon. Its a little intimidating heading down a grand staircase to a lair of ???.
A Dragon of gleaming silver is indeed beautiful!
Adalon was a little cranky. And even good dragons have over-sized egos. So she wasn’t exactly “friendly”. We quickly learned her wrath was due to the theft of her unhatched eggs. Adalon commanded us to enter the Drow city of Ust’ Natha and retrieve them. She would completely disguise us as Drow for our mission. Dragon magic is renowned for its unique power. The illusion she bestowed was amazing.
We’re ready.
I took a moment aside with Aerie, so we could talk about dealing with the onslaught to our sensitivities I knew would come with entering a Drow city. In some ways, the two of us are wired a lot alike and I figured she was the most likely to track with my angst over what I knew was coming. Then we all talked for a moment. I trust my team, none of us are looking forward to this. But we want to play it smart, I think any of us would be morally broken by a genocidal romp through the city, even if on the spur of the moment it seems like the best option. I think we all found the right attitude, to play the part of heartless Drow adventurers while not actually *doing* anything we would regret.
Entering the city, the feeling of evil is oppressive. We were expected (I was "Veldrin", a foreign Drow adventurer expected in town. But actually already slain by Adalon) and directed to contact a male warrior named Solaufein who would be our liaison (baby sitter?) while in Ust Natha. The warrior population of the city seemed on the light side, perhaps having to do with whatever Irenicus was up to. The observation seemed correct when we were directed rescue a "matron's" daughter who'd been abducted by Ilithids. We performed the rescue with no drama. The woman we'd rescued, Phaerie, was a harsh and unlikable sort. I guess that's no shock, but no common courtesy in this place! We were then tasked with killing a beholder entering Ust Natha. Again, simple enough and not really compromising for us.
But then we were tasked with massacring a Svirfneblin patrol. Surprisingly our minder, Solaufein seemed to find this as distasteful as we did. Was that a hint of conscience? Or just pride? Either way, we encouraged to return to the city and let us do this on our own.
I'd liked the Deep Gnomes when we passed through their town earlier, its easy to be kind to them. I think they were shocked with us appearing as Drow and greeting them in a friendly way. Even more so when we explained our mission, and our need for some of their gear in a battered and damaged state.
Our ruse worked and our work was considered acceptable. We had observed almost since her rescue, that there is considerable hostility between Phaerie and Solaufein. Perhaps more than normal between Drow? We were not shocked when Phaeie asked us to slay Solaufein for her. As foreigners, unaligned with local politics, we could do so with minimum fuss.
Did I mention I'll be ready to get out of here anytime?
We "ambushed" Solaufein in his quarters, for a chat. He was surprised by our not doing as directed. He revealed that he and Phaerie had once been lovers, and she'd been punished, tortured severely for becoming too attached to a mere man. He gave us a cloak with a family crest on it to take as proof of our dirty deed. Hey, we're getting good at these non-assassinations! He wished us well in the name of a good-aligned elven goddess. A surface elven goddess. Interesting. Well we met Drizzt several months back, obviously Draw are not ALL wicked and corrupt. But Solaufein will have a hard path wherever he goes from here.
Apparently we now have a reputation among the Drow as being resourceful and ruthless. Oh yeah, that's me! We met with Phaerie's matron and were tasked with locating blood from a noble of one of the neighbor races, whom we'd already met and cleared out. If we weren't in good before, we sure were when we provided everything she wanted without leaving her sight. This was to be used for a rather frightening sounding summoning ceremony, but it sounds like Adalon's eggs are also used for the ritual. I'm seeing a path out of this, but so far a lot of bloodshed seems likely?
Phaerie asked me to her private quarters for a quick chat. She led off with asking if I had any loyalty to her matron. My mind was laughing pretty hard, I had to bite my tongue not to chuckle, you neither lady...
She actually gave us the key to the vault where Adalon's eggs were being stored and asked us to swap them for fakes she'd had made. On our way to do the deed we were met by Solaufein hiding in some shadows, he had more fake eggs. "Give these to Phaerie and get the real ones back to Adalon". Never mind having a plan come together, we'd just been handed one on a platter.
We quickly loaded the real eggs in a well padded box, then stashed it in the Bag of Holding. We replaced them with the fakes Phaerie had provided.
After getting tangled in some drama with a local warlord, we met up at the Dark Temple for the Matron's twisted ceremony. A demon was summoned, it was smaller than the one we slew at Dragonspear Castle a few months ago. It was not amused when the Matron tried to offer it fake dragon eggs for a boon and it killed her. The demon actually laughed when Phaerie offered more fake eggs that we'd gotten from Solaufein. It knew exactly what we'd done! Fortunately it didn't care, and after killing Phaerie for wasting its time it gated itself back to the Abyss. I realized I'd been holding my breath.
Now its time to move! No one had to be told it was time for us to get out.
Which we did and hustled back to Adalon's lair. She was beyond pleased to see us and the precious cargo we brought her. The Drow illusion was dispelled and we were ourselves once again. Adalon then led us to a gate that led back to the surface. This was at an ancient Elven temple, that had been defaced and destroyed by a Drow army that had just come this way.
The site had been occupied by a small elven army. They were immediately suspicious of us, but stating we were in pursuit of Irenicus really aroused their curiosity. We were led to meet with a General Elhan who was in charge.
Elhan was not in a trusting mood. But I convinced him we shared a common foe.
Irenicus had taken something as dear to the elves as what he'd taken from me, their home city! He'd led an army of Drow into Suldanessellar, and then magically hid it somehow. There was an elven artifact that could lead them home, but it was lost. I thought of Bodhi's lair in Athkatla as a likely hiding place, but that would be all on us. An army of elves would not by welcomed into Amnish territory.
First order of business was to get home to our castle for a check in. Things were secure, but training for our militia was proceeding slowly. It occurred to me we had a single companion with actual military service, and she had become a capable archer. Really a trusted companion. I asked if she could oversee archery training for our troops for the next several weeks and she agreed.
We needed to do some business in the city, and while there ran into a Paladin of the Radiant Heart, Keldorn. He was happy to join with us for a righteous cause.
*****
Yeah, I decided I really wanted Keldorn with us. It wasn't a completely easy choice, Skie really has become a good archer! But I'm so used to a stronger melee front than we've had. I'd also reiterate, my initial consideration had been to replace Jaheira with Keldorn. But I just can't see Psyche liking that plan at all. And for the reasons given above, Skie does seem somewhat logical to detach. Like Minsc, I imagine one day (when the actual game is over) Skie will adventure with her friends once again.
Today we went off on a monster hunt for Lord Firkraag. He offered us 10000 gold to clear his lands of dangerous monsters, he mostly reported ogres. I've talked with ogres before, and thought it might be nice if we just send them packing without too much bloodshed.
We were attacked almost as soon as we crossed into the Windspear Hills by ogres. Or so we thought! As the fight ended a horrified observer asked what was happening here, we were shocked to see knights fallen where we'd slain beasts! I even recognized a young Paladin named Ajantis, we'd met several months back, south of Baldur's Gate. And Keldorn knew all of these men. The witness quickly introduced himself as Garren Windspear, former lord of these lands, and suggested we'd been duped by illusion. We explained our so-called mission and learned this was a game played by the new lord of the land. Firkraag had played such tricks a couple years back to discredit him and seize control. He'd hired us! This was personal?
Garren offered to ride to Athkatla and clear our names with the Order of the Radiant Heart. He suggested we lay low at his home until he could return with news. During the night, Garren's teenage son was abducted from the house and we fought the intruders. We found a letter, a challenge to face Firkraag personally. We didn't have to explore the area long to find the ruins of ancient temple, with plenty of signs of activity. So we entered looking for information. We were attacked by several groups of orcs, undead, even golems. This was a large facility, and we heard the name Firkraag several times. But most of those we encountered just attacked us. After a lot of combat, we had a large fight in a prison area. Garren's son was here, but the locks were beyond Imoen's abilities. A large ornate gateway nearby seemed invitation and threat. And hopefully answers. Lord Firkraag is a large, red dragon. Who bears literal scars from having met Gorion many years ago. This was his idea of revenge. He had a powerful mage with a key to the prison cells, but he was going to kill the prisoner if we didn't kill the mage first. A sick game!
We stopped the mage and freed the boy. And I needed another talk with that dragon.
"You owe me 10000 gold. Now Wyrm!"
That got the reaction I was hoping for.
"Wow that was so bright! And a little warm. And you were awesome! Pow! That was fun." "This way honey, we'll have Aerie use a Heal spell and that should bring your vision back."
We loaded the Radiant Heart fallen on a wagon and started a sad trek back to Athkatla. I'm hoping the Order will have access to Resurrection spells we do not, perhaps some of them can be brought back? Aerie isn't very optimistic about it.
We stopped for the night in Trademeet, where we are still welcomed as heroes. That was a fun and encouraging night for us.
As before, the full write-up, with more AI art, is available as "Psyches and Diomedes" and "Psyche and Diomedes, Part II" at davesgaming.blog
We got back to Athkatla the next day with our sad cargo. The Knights were somber in the situation, but understood what had happened.
We had other business to take care of in the city, while we were near the Government offices Keldorn mentioned he had a home nearby. We went with him to meet his family. That may have been a mistake! His wife was not happy with him, he's apparently been away for two months. Longer than we can accept any blame for! I'll let Keldorn keep his private life private, but the end result was he needed several days of family time. Of course we can do this.
We still have a list of chores to get to, but right outside of Keldorn's home we'd met a young man, not quite in his teens, who was looking for help for his hometown, Imnesville in the Umar Hills. So we decided to do that while giving Keldorn some time.
There have been deaths and disappearances in town. Locals have several, wildly conflicting theories on the nature of their trouble. It could a group of ogres sighted outside of town, there were reports of heavy wolf pack activity; and an ancient myth of sorts, the witch Umar terrorized the area some 500 years ago.
I'm thinking we can cautiously dismiss the witch theory (yes, I'm aware we *could* be dealing with a Lich), but the obvious thing was to seek out the ogres. The ogres were quite friendly, they were deserters from an army far to the south and just wanted to live in peace. They even offered their protection for the village if they would be allowed to do business and trade in town. But with the caution, the leader Madulf reports he's lost a couple ogres to whatever is in the area. We took this word to the village leader, he was pleased that the ogres had proven friendly. But we still had work to do.
We found signs of a fight at the local Ranger's cabin, and an indication wolves were somehow behind this. We found yet another Ranger in the area, a man named Valygar was hiding from the Cowled Wizards in Athkatla. He concurred wolves had been vicious recently in the area. But Valygar worried he was in imminent danger, a large planar travel device had landed in the Athkatla Slums a few weeks back and he was sure he had a family connection to it. Worse, the Cowled Wizards were equally certain and had decided only Valygar could enter the magical machine. He had come to believe he had to return to the City to deal with it, and to avoid the Cowled Wizards while doing so.
We joined with him went back to the City at once.
The Planar Travel device is a thing we couldn't help but see earlier, but this was the first time we had made time to investigate.
Standing many stories tall the Planar Sphere is impossible to miss. It was rumored to have been built by an ancestor of Valygar's named Lavok. We could find no obvious entrance, but when Valygar touched it an unseen panel slid open.
The interior was vastly larger than the exterior. Right off the entrance was a giant map room, with a perfect replica of Athkatla including the Sphere parked right exactly where it is. It also contained several unique environs. In one room were we were fighting Sahaugin again. In another room we met a group of knights, calling themselves "Knights of Solamnia", a group were not familiar with but seem to be a paladin order.
We stepped into another room that was like stepping into a windswept, sunblasted desert... at night. And were promptly ambushed by halflings? Or something like halflings. They were savage, feral and had spellcasters with them. This proved to be a fairly dangerous fight, we did not adequately prepare for this. By the end, Imoen and I were the only team members not Held or Confused! Fortunately we both know "Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting" which brought the proceedings to an end. That was the most intense fight we've faced since the Underdark. From feral halflings.
The first wave of halflings was all melee, Diomedes and Jaheira made quick work of them. Which may have caused us to get sloppy in our preparations.
We were more careful after this, and faced more halflings, golems, a beholder and others.
Much of what we found was magic lab space, magic engines and other apparatus beyond our immediate understanding. We finally wound up in what would seem to be the control room, with Lavok still present. After a brief fight we determined he'd been possessed by something that wanted to travel the planes, centuries ago. During our explorations the Sphere had traveled to the Abyss. Oh joy. This turned out to be fortunate for us, the device needed a Demon heart fed into its power source to return home. Well, since we have nothing else to do while in the Abyss...
This done, Lavok was able to make one last jump to get us back home. But obviously the old mage was aging and dying rapidly now. We fulfilled his last wish to see the sun of his home world, and found ourselves in possession of an inert planar travel device. Such a thing could hardly be expected to escape the notice of the Cowled Wizards who sent an envoy of sorts to contact us. I'm truly not eager to have dealings with this group. The individual they sent, Teos by name, was particularly odious and he obviously disliked us all before even meeting us.
Look Teos, its obvious we've gotten off on the wrong foot. I am sorry you've been stuck with an assignment you obviously didn't want. But just please remember, every time you drop by to visit us, you're continued existence is at my leisure.
I really don't want to be associated with these guys beyond what is absolutely needed. For practical reasons, I've told Imoen she's in charge of this facility. I completely trust her experience with the Cowled Wizards to guide our contact with them. But I don't think any of us will do more than visit this place as needed.
We said our goodbye's to Valygar who was heading back to the Umar Hills. I asked him to look after the village until we could return and look into those wolf attacks.
*****
A little bit of quest schizophrenia going on here as we skip between missions, leaving some incomplete. From here, BG2 becomes a matter of cleaning up loose ends for a while. Really a fair amount left to do, maybe 2/3 through the core game? But there will be a couple other detours before the end game.
This is the point where the party is getting seriously powerful. Psyche will have 9th level spells very soon, and Imoen not too far behind. Aerie will soon have 7th cleric spells.
I have effectively destroyed the Cowled Wizards before, they are tough but not infinite. I figure Psyche is a little more restrained than some characters I've played, but she won't be taking any nonsense from them either. It is unfortunate, as a game mechanism, the Cowled Wizards do have the ability to lock you out of the Planar Sphere. But, I figure Psyche is cooperative enough by nature to do the things they want anyway. The main thing they seem to want is help training some new mages. I think Psyche and Imoen like the idea of influencing these young minds. And then we wage a brief war against some anti-magic zealots, Psyche would do that for free.
After getting business settled with the Planar Sphere we went and found Keldorn to rejoin with us, and headed off for some exploring of the sewers. Oh joy! Unexpectedly we stumbled across a small Illithid lair. Those psychos are always looking to destroy humanity, so they needed to be eradicated.
Next we found the entrance to the mage Mekrath's lair. We had good reason to think he'd abducted the actor Haer'Dalis so we staged a little rescue mission that went easily enough. We later found a gem of some worth that had been stolen from the company of actors, so we'll need to get back to the Bridge District to conclude business later.
The main even in the sewers was investigating the "Unseeing Eye" cult. We'd been asked to look into this by the Temple of Lathander, and Keldorn had been given a similar task by the Order of Radiant Heart; so this was an issue of some concern. Specifically, the question was if this was a legitimate faith or something heretical.
"So Keldorn, what will this retirement look like for you?" "More time for my family, and less abuse of these old bones".
Dealing with a cult that blinds its adherents one immediately has a lot of questions. Its hard to believe anything "good" could be behind this. We found their base of operations under the city and were met by their (blind) leader. He suggested we could keep our eyes if we performed a mission for them. They wanted a part of a magical wand that was deeper underground. We agreed, while all agreeing keeping said object away from these people was very important. Traveling where Gaal, the cult leader had indicated, we first encountered a small enclave of of people who had left the cult, led by a man called Sassar. They indicated this was a beholder cult, and the broken wand, if fixed, could destroy their beholder deity. Gaal presumably was looking for a way to destroy the thing. Off we went again, deeper underground into several battles against undead and beholders. And finally to an odd town deep underground.
"Greetings, sir?"
I'd never been anywhere completely grey before. Depression hung heavily about the place. These people in theory guarded an ancient temple, the only source of color around. But they claimed to have been here for countless generations of nothing ever happening or changing, and had come to loathe the god they "served". On entering the temple we found a very weak and sickly manifestation of some deity. After a talk about the lack of joy or faith among the villagers, the manifestation entrusted us with the broken part of wand we'd been sent for.
We returned with it to Sassar, who suggested a path through the Unseeing Eye compound into the beholder lair. The rest of the wand was there, if fixed it should undo the beast being worshipped.
We killed the crazed beholder that considered itself a god. I will never forget that smell!
We took the now drained wand back to the grey village. This provided a needed spark of hope, joy, faith to be restored.
Then we returned to clear out the beholder worshippers. Then finally back to fresh air and sunshine above! The Temple of Lathander and Knights of the Radiant Heart were both pleased with our efforts. And now both groups have other errands and chores for us. It is satisfying to have the confidence of such people, but a little exhausting. This must have been a big part of Keldorn's dilemma. He has promised his wife helping us settle our mission involving Irenicus will be his last. I've promised we'll hold him to it!
We spent a couple days doing chores and running errands mostly around Athkatla. Not too much combat or excitement; well, excepted for the Twisted Rune thing, oh and we had to rescue that acting troupe from an extra-planar prison thingy. More important things involved finishing a training course for the young mages Id been entrusted with. We also had little projects for both the Knights and the Temple of Lathander.
Keldorn has proven to be a true asset to this team, and I appreciate his calm and steady approach to pretty much everything. Except, he and Jaheira do clash at times! Its funny, both are plainly motivated to do right by people and are willing to take great personal risk to do so. But the way they word things, the way they look at things, is so different. Diomedes in particular has to play referee a lot.
We finally pulled ourselves away to go look into the wolf problem out in the Umar Hills. But first, we spent a whole day just relaxing together at the Castle. We had a beautiful day to just enjoy the country too.
I've never spent much time in the water. Is it safe? Is it clean? Maybe I'll just dip my toes...
We had a big feast together at the end of the day. It was great having Minsc, Nalia and Skie all with us for a while.
Psyche always wins this game.
In the morning we were all a little refreshed and we set out to help the people of Imnesville.
We tracked the trouble in the Umar Hills to a ruined temple of Amaunator. The whole area had fallen into darkness and shadow, and we were attacked by numerous shadows as we approached the temple.
The catacombs beneath the temple were thick with shadows and undead, and the temple ruins had been thoroughly defaced. We restored the site’s dignity in small ways as we could. We destroyed two lichs, and they still didn’t seem to be the focus of the desecration.
A ruined Amphitheater had been taken over by a Shade Dragon. We’re way beyond a wolf problem!
Just up staircase we found what this was about. A Shade Lord had taken over the old temple icon. He had slain the area’s guardian ranger, and most of a previous adventuring party that had come this way. We could feel the temple and the land healing itself once we removed the source of the problem.
Returning to Imnesvale, Mayor Lloydd and his people were overjoyed. The pleaded with us to take the role of protector. But I’m stretched so thin just now, I suggested Madulf and his ogres would do better for them.
Then back home! Just for the night. But our neighbor, Lord Roenall stopped by for a visit. It was not pleasant, apart from the amusing lowbrow sort of insults the man threatened to remove us from the land by force. We will need to stick close for a few days and see how this plays out.
Lord Roenall you are completely out of line. Leave this castle and these lands. If you return without a gracious apology I will remove you and your thugs by force. Understood?
We got an early start on the day with a vampire hunt. Returning to Bodhi’s lair in the main graveyard of Athkatla, we met up with Drizzt and a few of his friends. Then all of us entered ready for trouble. And we found it. The lair had been repopulated with the bloodsuckers. We came prepared with Holy Water and plenty of stakes. We killed eight on the upper level, and going down the stairs we found another half dozen with Bodhi herself leading the fight.
Soon, Bodhi was the only foe left standing.
She couldn’t win, and was staked with her whole vile brood.
It was barely lunchtime when we exited the tomb, and were met by an exhausted messenger rushing up to us, Lord Roenall had returned with an army intending to take d’Arnise Castle for himself. We rode hard back home and arrived just as our forces joined battle. We gathered a rear guard and met Lord Roenall and his bodyguard force as they arrived at the Castle gates. After the way our day started, this fight was pure anti-climax. But it was hugely important to the troops we’d been training, it was their first fight as a military force and they’d carried the day.
“Do you know what you accomplished today Psyche? By right of arms, you’ve earned the title for this land. If its okay by you, I’d like to be the first to publicly introduce the new Baron and Baroness.” “Nalia, you will always have a home here.”
*****
Readers familiar with renders done by Zeno at “zenosziggurat.com” will recognize I again used much of his work for the fight against Bodhi. I am in awe of how he gets action portrayed. So I took some of his cues and mixed them with my party and style. This is sort of a testimony to what the AI can do, it produces stunning results when you actually know what to tell it!
There remains two, fairly lengthy, sub-adventures before the pursuit of Irenicus will resume…
Note: the write-up below will contain spoilers for the fairly recent mod by Acifer "Call of the Lost Goddess". If you may want to play, you may want to skip this write-up!
The next morning we set out for "The Golden Spires", a large temple of Waukeen just north of Athkatla. Waukeen is the patron goddess of merchants, and all sorts of trade/business/industry. But significantly, she's been missing since the Time of Troubles, over a decade ago. I'm not sure how a temple and its clergy continue to function with no deity, but we will get a closer look at it today! We had been asked to check in the high priest a couple weeks back, when we were in the city.
The outer courts of the temple are quite a marketplace! Not surprising at a temple to "The Lady of Coin". We however were expected and were quickly ushered into the high priest's presence. The priest, Tharundar, was a gracious and likable older man. He got quickly to the point, a priestess/prophet at the temple had been having dreams, that led to the conclusion Waukeen was being held captive in the Abyss. They are desperately in need of heroes brave enough and dumb enough [I may have added the last part!] to break her out! Oof. Yeah, we'll do that. Normal means of gating or planar travel to the Abyss are not acceptable for this, they draw too much attention. But a lesser known means of planar travel, the Infinite Staircase could take us to a fitting destination. This is no small thing, there's an infinite number of planes, each of infinite size that make up the Abyss. So knowing exactly where we are going is paramount. The temple has already done much of the ground work for this, its like they really want us to go or something! The Infinite Staircase is infinite as far as anyone knows, and provides access to many (but not all) places you can ever imagine. But you know, navigating such an infinite thing requires a lot of information!
I've never really thought much about "infinite" before.
The staircase stops at platforms that have gates, and then more stairs often up and down in several directions. We entered the Staircase just a couple days hike (on stairs!) from the gate we wanted. We had some intriguing encounters along the way, but nothing we'd call important until we got to our destination.
The Stair let us out in the Abysmal city of Samora. This is not a vacation spot! It is vile and treacherous. No one there can be trusted. I was a little shocked at the diversity of life and activity going on, everything a dark and twisted version of our own reality might have. Some poor souls are here against their will, but most could be said to belong here for one reason or another. Our team will play the part of ruthless and greedy mercenaries looking to earn a fortune while reveling in destruction. We have a contact in the form of a Nalfeshnee named Margrog (a repulsive type of demon) who will give us information on finding the lost Goddess. Not too willingly it turned out. Some sort of "bargaining" had taken place between Margrog and the priest Tharundar, I shudder to think what sort of price was paid for this mission we're on. We were forced to perform several menial tasks. Our demon was not happy with us (are they ever?), apparently a human cleric of Cyric the Mad God had followed us and threatened to expose the operation before it even began.
We were finally directed to enter into several pit fights to try and draw the local over-lord's attention. This was a demon, a succubus named Maretta. She is the only one with access to the imprisoned Goddess, at least locally she is. After a half dozen progressively harder fights this worked. I think we'd cleaned out the coordinator's stock of beasts.
We were summoned to meet Maretta.
"Of course madam, all I truly want is fortune and glory!" I can see the gears cranking in Maretta's mind, I'm pretty sure she will outsmart herself in spectacular fashion.
Another demon who wants us to do chores, undoubtedly a sort of vetting process.
[I'm intentionally omitting most of the rest of this write up from here. It is a new mod, I don't want to spoil the main plot any further]
We spent a day doing things to completely forget the Abyss.
*****
"Call of the Lost Goddess" is the biggest and most expertly crafted mod I've yet seen for the game. It boasts 10 hours of gameplay, I suspect it will go much faster after its been played a few times. But it is disturbing in places. This was my second playthrough of it, and I was considering deleting the thing near the end. I really prefer adventures in the great outdoors. But the end is very satisfying. I will leave it in for a while yet.
A stray thought that may have more to do with how things are shown in AD&D than anything related to BG or this mod in particular. But at a certain point, demonic and devilish things become not very frightening. There was nothing in this adventure to really give me pause. Psyche and her crew can destroy any peril. This doesn't always match the narrative. I mean, demons should be frightening. Especially a demon lord in their domain. Acifer is wise in not letting us encounter the actual ruler of this realm. I had thought Maretta and a few other demons might be the same sort, but you do get to encounter and destroy a number that you've been warned you won't be able to face.
Some of this really is just D&D, right? Its like the Greater Wolfwere on Balduran's Island. "He'll eat the marrow from your bones". Yeah right. And no doubt dragons always come with much fanfare, even if you can put them down in a single round.
And its all fun, you run the epic heroes who can face any hazard and destroy any foe. Maybe its best not to think too hard on meta-issues when gaming!
As always, the full write-up (without the omitted parts!) is available as "Psyche and Diomedes, Part 2" at davesgaming.blog
We were heading back towards the elves, with the Lanthorn we'd recovered from Bodhi, when we came across an ancient keep and a group of knights pleading for our aid. They were Watchknights of Helm, charged by their god with protecting this site. Of course we're willing to help if we can.
Apparently this great, ancient keep is a prison. Holding a prisoner unknown to the knights, but known to be very dangerous. And the old prison was failing. They needed someone to enter the keep, to pass the "Final Seal" and perform a ritual to renew the magic keeping this place secure. This sounds like something we can handle.
We were briefed on how to enter and what to do. As we entered, Diomedes said to me in a low voice, "you know I'm happy to help, but why aren't these 'knights' doing this?" A question we will try to answer.
The top level of the Keep (where we entered) had once been a chapel to Helm. The old high priest had been on duty for centuries, and he demanded warm cozy slippers for our passage.
The next level down was a puzzle of sorts, we needed to piece together clues to gather four keys. All why by being distracted by a demon who insisted we could only continue by letting him free. As we gathered clues, it seemed this was true.
"Do you think it will occur to him that he should be worried that our two paladins are so agreeable to setting him free?"
Next we had a maze of magic portals to navigate. The "Blood War" we'd recently learned of in the Abyss was going on a small scale between the various portals, demons and devils battling each other. We eliminated all we met. In the last portal room of the maze, we encountered a demon or cambion or something, that both paladins agreed was not detecting as evil! That's an oddity! I approached cautiously, and found he mostly wanted to play a game of cards.
I think he was bored. Between us we had all the parts we needed to unlock the way out. And we worked it out so we both got what we wanted.
Continuing down, we came across a large open floor dominated by "The Machine of Lum the Mad". An old mage was trapped in the machine, and had been using it to gate in various beasties and force battles to the death. So we waged a battle of survival against Ilithids, Umber Hulks, Githyanki, Minotaurs, a Dragon, a Demi-Lich... in clearing out the level we figured out escape involved getting into the machine...
"Carston the Magnificent" was a sadistic wacko. We found the trick to getting him out...
The next floor was the final seals. All we had to do was open the seals, get into the room beyond and read the Ritual Scroll. Dang. This was the most epic battling we've seen yet. Several tests and a lot of demanding foes. We did prevail, and were nearly overwhelmed by a powerful evil force. No dumb demon in a cage, this was a force of elemental evil. We were all overwhelmed with the single thought, we'd been deceived. At the very least, the Watchknight's knew what was here.
Apparently we had won the right to come and go from this cage, so we headed back to the knights to see what more we could learn. They were shocked and upset we'd entered and found our way out. And indeed, they knew what was inside. They all packed up and entered to determine what we'd done.
We didn't have long to wonder what this meant, a visitor appeared.
A spectral warrior, a "True Knight" of Helm greeted us. The Watchknights had tricked us into doing what was meant to be their job. We were given a new ritual scroll, we could use from right where we stood, that would renew the seals on the prison, and ensure the Demon Lord Demagorgon would not escape. the Watchknights were not meant to survive. Harsh. I felt no particular animosity towards them, their only crime was cowardice. But they'd failed their god and he'd decided for us.
After a brutal couple of days we decided to head home and rest up. All of us needed some time to recover.
Time spent with friends is always the best reminder of what we fight for.
Today we made it down to where we'd left the elves. With the help of the Lanthorn we were transported right to the hidden gates of the their missing city. A mixture of Drow, Rakshasa, Golems and others had just entered and were distracted by their own looting and destruction. Time to take out the trash...
Aerie spotted a group of Drow breaking into a temple, looks like a good place to start...
There were several large Golems to face.
In a clearing on the edge of town we faced a Black Dragon.
With the help of the Elven soldiers and General Elhan we cleared the city in about an hour, but Irenicus had seized a site sacred to the elves, the "Tree of Life" and had the queen as a hostage. He was performing some rite to become a new deity.
Irenicus really should have kept his hood on.
"Kiss for luck." "you know that's the only 'buff' I need!"
We ended Irenicus' deluded dreams. Although he had one last dirty trick, he still held a part of my soul and used it drag us all to the Abyss after him. I'm really getting tired of that place.
I had to pass a series of five tests, gee the demons think I'm good. Their judgement matters so much to me. Finally we found Irenicus behind a large golden gate.
"That look is really you Jon. You have something that doesn't belong to you, and I will have it back!"
This was a much easier fight than back at the Tree, Even with the help of several demons I get the feeling Irenicus was already diminished.
This finally did it. I felt my missing part return in a rush. And we were all pulled back to the Elven City.
We spent a few days with the elves, we had been through a lot. It felt good to be whole again, and to have all my friends with me intact.
I want so much to just be done with this life already. But now we're hearing rumbles of a Bhaalspawn War starting to the south.
We all rushed south, towards the besieged city of Saradush and rumors of a group of Bhaalspawn calling themselves "The Five". Short of the town, we met a hunter of Bhaalspawn, a Bhaalspawn herself named Illasera. This was not a hard fight, and I'll be sure to let "The Five" know they need to change their name to "The Four".
Immediately after this fight, we were all pulled into a small pocket dimension, a slice of Hell. Here I met a Solar who informed me I was on a path to resolve things, but I would need better preparation and instruction that she herself would oversee.
A Solar offered her services as my mentor. Obviously we were starting a new chapter of life.
An encounter with my brother Sarevok, and some testing by combat followed. Main lesson learned seemed to be something about the nature of my heritage. Not a fun kind of lesson, I would have preferred a good book on structural engineering...
Now we could exit this unreal world, apparently I have control to come and go as I please, and get into the besieged city. We stepped into a crowd in a state of near riot. Residents were trying for an audience with their leader, whose troops initiated violence. I showed them the error of their ways.
A woman named Mellisan was there, apparently trying to calm things down. But things escalated beyond her ability to contain.
Mellisan seemed to have some influence, but perhaps not enough for what all was happening.
We spoke with her briefly, she knew exactly what I was, and claimed to be collecting Bhaalspawn as the armies of the The Five were actively hunting them. She'd used Sharadush as a meeting spot, but then they were all trapped by the army of the Bhaalspawn Yaga-Shura. The locals were not happy with so many Bhaalspawn refugees. No doubt, one thing I've learned is that my sort is often inclined to violence.
Our immediate goal would be to meet with the local warlord, a Bhaalspawn who Mellisan suggested was loosing his marbles and needed some voice of reason. Well, we can definitely end his instability, peacefully or not will be up to him.
Honestly, this mission Mellisan asked of us is a little flakey. We have a lot of refugees, many innocent, trapped in a town. I'd say the besieger is the issue, Gromnir near irrelevant to the math of it. But I suppose we can look into one dangerous force at a time.
Our immediate goal would be to meet with the local warlord, a Bhaalspawn who Mellisan suggested was loosing his marbles and needed some voice of reason. Well, we can definitely end his instability, peacefully or not will be up to him.
Honestly, this mission Mellisan asked of us is a little flakey. We have a lot of refugees, many innocent, trapped in a town. I'd say the besieger is the issue, Gromnir near irrelevant to the math of it. But I suppose we can look into one dangerous force at a time.
Getting into the palace was a minor challenge, Gromnir had kept himself locked away for several days. But we found the sewers all connected up, naturally there were rumors of evil in the sewers.
Getting into the palace was a minor challenge, Gromnir had kept himself locked away for several days. But we found the sewers all connected up, naturally there were rumors of evil in the sewers.
Vampires again. Diomedes and the Mace of Disruption made quick work of the threat.
Finally we found our way into Gromnir's presence. Perhaps he could recognize the threat?
Surely Lord Gromnir, you can recognize the enemy at the gates?
Or not.
Gromnir was a capable warrior and he'd surrounded himself with some dangerous body guards. They were clearly, a little more dangerous than most groups of orcs.
We may have left a power vacuum.
Mellisan arrived a little later and claimed shock we'd had to kill him. What did she think was going to happen? We would need to leave the city, by way of my new pocket dimension thingy (I believe that is the technical term!). Yaga-Shura is impervious to physical harm, but apparently not born that way. So we would need to investigate his base of operations and see if we could learn a way to overcome it.
We used my new pocket plane ability to escape the city and move beyond the siege camp. After rescuing a merchant from some of Yaga-Shura’s soldiers (just the human kind) we discussed heading off to his main stronghold, or the old temple in the swamp where he was raised. The temple seemed more likely to unlock secrets so we went there first.
But first we still had to fight our way out of the area. There were over twenty soldiers, and a half dozen or so Fire Giants to overcome. This was mostly brute force type fighting, fortunately Diomedes, Jaheira and Keldorn excel at this.
No doubt, the most fearsome part of Yaga-Shura’s army are the Fire Giants. Big powerful brutes who can cleave a person in two pretty easily. Our warriors are up to the challenge of bringing them down.
On reaching the temple we were assailed by a specter of some sort, who tried the tired trick of fooling me into thinking he was Gorion back from beyond. Apart from the obvious moral deficiencies, it seems evil is unimaginative [its a pity Psyche hasn’t read much CS Lewis, he would agree!]. I didn’t fall for this the previous few times either…
After we slew the stupid specter we fought several more undead guarding the site. Finally we made our way to Nyalee, an ancient witch who raised Yaga-Shura.
The old witch was quite annoyed with her boy! She had taught him some trick with keeping his heart in a secured location to ensure his immortality, but had betrayed her by taking her heart also? I don’t quite understand all the subtleties of Necromancy, but we need to return with both hearts so she can restore them in some way. It should heal whatever has been stolen from her, and make Yaga-Shura mortal.
The obvious thing now, was to head to Yaga-Shura’s stronghold. This we did, and we fought a whole lot of Fire Giants! Maybe 30? Brutal fight. But we found both a human heart and a Fire Giant heart there, and returned them to Nyalee. She performed her ritual, and promptly regretted giving us the tools to kill her boy. Huh, makes a twisted sort of sense. We had to destroy her when she attacked us.
Then it was back to the Siege camp outside of Saradush.
The city had obviously fallen and was in flames. We helped refugees clear the area.
Much of the enemy’s army was busy in the city itself, so we hit the siege camp fast and hard.
Yaga-Shura himself was the only Fire Giant in the camp, but that’s who we came to see! He was shocked to find we could actually hurt him. This made him angry. And stupid. So the “The Five” is now “The Three”!
As we were finishing our battle Mellisan showed up. We needed to get the remaining members of the group, and she directed us to a small dust bowl of a town called Amkethran which would put us in easy striking distance of the other Bhaalspawn. I admit to being very suspicious of how she knows so much, and I wonder if her “help” is stringing us along? Well, one thing at a time, and Yaga-Shura deserved to burn.
That new ability I have to gate to and from my own little pocket dimension is cool and handy. But it seems to only work for places I’ve been. So we’ll be traveling across the desert to Amkethran the old fashioned way.
Several days were spent crossing desert.
We arrived at an Oasis about halfway to our destination. It had been occupied by troops from the Kingdom of Tethyr, and they were looking for me. The commanding officer, General Jamis Tomblethen informed me I was wanted for mass murder in the destruction of Saradush. Of course the sentence was death.
I was briefly worried we would have to kill all these soldiers, which would perhaps prove their point. I offered to let them use whatever detection magic they had on me and my party. Jamis seemed embarrassed and awkward that we clearly were not evil. I told him plainly what had happened, and that I was in pursuit of the other Bhaalspawn who had been starting wars and picking fights in the area. He wished me luck and let us go, I’ll leave it him to figure out what to tell his Queen.
After a night in the Oasis we set off again in the morning.
We arrived at Amkethran late that evening. It was a sun blasted small adobe town. A large fortress, nearly as big as the rest of the town dominated the northern edge. The town was over-run with mercenaries, not the best behaved sorts either. We went over to the fortress to make contact with Melissan's friend Balthazar. He provided information we needed, about the location of two more Bhaalspawn strongholds. But he was not at all friendly, a severe monkish sort. And Melissan had not been here for quite some time.
We looked to settle in for the night, and saw several abuses of power from both the mercenaries and the monks (!). I've found most mercenaries are smart enough to know when not to start a fight, but several in Amkethran seem to lack much sense. We also ran into our old friend Saemon, funny he'd turn up here.
"Hah! No Saemon, don't apologize to me, apologize to them. They're the ones more likely to get hurt by your little game."
"Jaheira, do you worry for our friend? Sometimes I fear she enjoys all this trouble too much."
"No Keldorn, I've seen her through a lot of trouble. We've seen a lot together. She does have an irrepressible love of life, friends and family. But killing and death hurt her. Morally she's actually more like you than me, if she takes pleasure in a fight its because she does like destroying evil. But I think she'll quit this life the moment she can"
The next day we set off for what our map called "Sendai's Enclave". Questioning around town led us to think she was likely a Drow, but not much useful about what kind or size army she had.
The spot on the map looked like idealic woodland, but it was pretty obvious to me some major Illusion type magic was at play. We fought through an ambush by a Beholder and several Drow. Then a conversation with a "simple woodsman" unmasked the whole facade. We fought about ten Drow before we found a cave entrance. The cave and its interior showed an obvious Drow influence in its architecture, and we found ourselves in an epic running fight against Drow and their slaves. Much of this would have been overwhelming not so long ago, but my team is a potent war machine at this point.
We entered a room with a number of Drow warriors, and of all things, a Beholder came forward to propose making things less violent. We knew him! We'd dealt with this Beholder back in the Sahuagin City! He's actually a friendly, decent sort. He proposed I duel the Drow commander under a binding agreement for an all or nothing sort of win.
"You should have stayed home little girl"
"Captain Egeissag! Has your mistress heard you talk like that? Oh even if you win you're in sooooo much trouble!"
I took the challenge mainly out of curiosity. I've wanted to melee up front a few times, test my skills. Mainly of the magic prep/buffing sort. But melee is clearly not my best strength so it hasn't happened much. But I recently got that "Shakti Figurine", and I was already pretty buffed for combat in this place; so I was sure I'd win. I think that poor Drow Captain was so excited to meet a woman who was actually smaller than him he lost his head... and for the record, he did.
We faced some Illithids next, and finally stood before Sendai herself.
Sendai was a little upset we'd destroyed her army.
She did fight with a neat trick, several statues around the room, all of her, fought with different elements of her own skillset. But the outcome was never in doubt. Drow are highly resistant to all sorts of spells, So Imoen and Aerie and I were not at our strongest against them. But wow, Diomedes, Jaheira and Keldorn just destroyed her.
We returned to Amkethran the next day. Tomorrow we leave to investigate Abizagal, no one seems know anything about him.
Remember this whole illustrated write-up is available as "Psyche and Diomedes" and "Psyche and Diomedes, Part 2" at davesgaming.blog
Arriving where the map indicated we would find Abizagal, was a large platform on the side of a mountain. With large double doors leading in to the side of a cliff face. One man stood across the platform by the doors. Diomedes snorted, "looks like Dragon country to me." I chose to approach the man to talk while Diomedes, Jaheira and Keldorn spread out to my sides. Imoen and Aerie stayed further behind.
The young man talked like a crazed fanatic. He made some taunts about my unworthiness to carry the blood of a god. I learned his name was Draconis, which affirmed all my suspicions.
After fighting briefly as a mage, Draconis turned into a great green dragon. Without belaboring the details, we soon learned his severed head was the key to the great doorway.
the cavern within had several giant doorways, but these were all sealed against us. However, there were several wells of water and we could see light through the bottoms of the wells. I guess we're going swimming.
One cavern held a prisoner guarded by those Kua-Toan fish-men, he was a monk from Balthazar's sect. He told us Abizagal's cave was guarded by a large green dragon under some sort of magical charm, it might be possible to release the beast without harming it. I inquired what his mission here had been but he was tight lipped about it.
One of the caves we found was inhabited by, well, something I'd never seen or even read of. Floating eyeballs en masse. Some were harmless, some fired various low level spells at us. Like the severed remains of a beholder...
No shock, we encountered a mage, rather detached from reality, who would help us dispel the powerful charm on the guard dragon in exchange for a beholder's eye stalk. This led to an odd mission we sub-contracted with a crew of very inexperienced adventurers. Aerie commented how naive they seemed, which was a good laugh for everyone. I'm leading this company and have recently turned 21. It all seems unreal.
We got the eye stalk and exchanged it for a Geas removal scroll. Which is how we entered the hall of Abizagal.
I'm curious oh mighty Abizagal, why do you seem to be blue? When we killed your son outside he was plainly green.
I've gotten good at provoking dragons. The trick is, they are usually eager to be provoked.
Abizagal and his son Draconis were easily the two toughest dragons we've fought. Funny, I always thought age was the main determinant of power for dragons? Abizagal couldn't have been much older than me?
We made a trip back to my pocket dimension and had another chat with the friendly Solar. She allowed me to talk with the spirit of Yaga-Shura. We discussed the Bhaalspawn we've slain, and he affirmed only one remained. Balthazar? He was a jerk but not overwhelmingly evil. Maybe we can get him to stand down and end this conflict now? But he was a member of "The Five". Maybe more evil than I think?
I also had a chat with the god Cyric. He who killed my father (by blood; not my real father, not Gorion!) and currently holds the "Lord of Murder" portfolio. I assured him I was not interested in any part of his business.
Cyric is known as "The Mad God". He *seemed* rational. But then he sent three assassins after me. They didn't seem very dangerous, maybe I actually convinced him I was no threat!
After gating back to the Realms we had a talk with Elminster. I really need an autograph book, I'm making some interesting social contacts! He did affirm that we needed to face Balthazar and that this grand quest was nearing an end.
We returned to Amkethran, we quickly saw the guards were on high alert. We could all guess who they meant to fight. It would be nice to just slip into the fortress with no additional body count. So we skirted the edge of town, until we saw a clear line for the tavern. Thinking that might be a good place for information we went there and avoided attention. Inside, three mercenaries attacked us, but they were put down quickly. I asked the owner if he knew anyway, or knew anyone who knew a way into the fortress.
Looking at the dead mercenaries, he suggested a married couple in town had been also been looking for a way in. He told us where to go, and requested we finish our business quickly.
The couple in question had been planning on killing Balthazar, I suggested we were better qualified. They agreed, and gave us the key.
Entry from there involved little drama.
Balthazar hasn’t there been enough killing? We both even want peace, an end to this whole silly Bhaal thing. I would happily let you go, but surely you know, if you start something here you’re not the one who will be walking out of here.
Balthazar was beyond reason. It seems as we come to the end of this, we’re encountering more fanatics. Balthazar has made plain its Melissan who has manipulated this whole thing, created “The Five”. We learned more on return to the Solar back in my pocket plane. Melissan was a priestess of Bhaal, once charged with restoring the dead god when his essence had been harvested from all his children. But she was faithless, what a shock right? The clergy of a twisted and evil dead god is more interested in gaining his power for themselves than in restoring him.
Having concluded our lessens, it was time to close my personal plane down and proceed to “The Throne of Bhaal” and settle things with Melissan.
[Here I did the recent mod Crucible by Morpheus562. Again, I do not want to post recent mod spoilers here. But you can read the full post as "[url="https://davesgaming.blog/2024/10/12/baldurs-gate-2-playthrough-psyche-and-diomedes/"]Psyche and Diomedes[/url]" at davesgaming.blog]
And then it was on to the main event.
Amelyssan please, I’d rather not kill you. But if you choose to fight I will.
*****
Another Bhaalspawn Saga comes to an end. Psyche and her team survived all the final battles without a loss. What cosmic choice will Psyche make with the heavy load of Bhaal’s essence wholly on her slim shoulders?
Check in tomorrow for the epilogue and final post of “Psyche and Diomedes”.
So yes, I think you did a commendable job. Even to say, it wasn't too long! I'm often nearing burn out at the end of the saga, but a couple hours of new adventure and story played quite nicely.
It’s been so many years now since that great adventure. In many ways it made the life you've had. Your father and I won the home and prosperity you've always known. But I've heard so many different versions of our story from different people, different bards. I wanted to be sure an accurate record existed for you, your kids and beyond. A family should know its legacy.
It took us nearly a week to find our way home after being in the Throne of Bhaal. Perhaps I should have looked into travel arrangements before rejecting godhood. But we had a fun trip. Pressure was off, and we enjoyed the company of our friends.
I found I was still a little weepy and drained from the adventure. But had concluded it was something more by the time we were at the Castle. Indeed, you were born less than seven months later. It was a great blessing, and healing to know your life had formed even as the burden of death and killing came close to overwhelming me.
It surprised me a little that the whole gang stuck together that whole way home. I wondered what we all would be, how we'd know each other in the future as our time together was ending. Or at least changing. It had been a little over a year since Gorion died. As we approached the gate to the Castle, Jaheira made her farewell.
My dear friend Jaheira. She joined with Diomedes, Imoen and I at the very start of things. And apart from a couple weeks at the Dragonspear War was there for the whole year. She also lost the most.
She still needed time to mourn. Lost dreams are as bad as the missing person. She was a sort of loner anyway, and I think knowing Diomedes and I would be welcoming a growing family was more than she could bear. You know we've seen her a few times over the years. Your tough Auntie Jaheira was a part of my strength for that formative year, but its not her way to demonstrate. And I always feared my need to hug made things harder for her.
We've even had a few adventures together over the years, an advantage of our more stable home was she knew where to find us when she had needs related to her life as a Druid or Harper.
Keldorn of course needed to get home. I was surprised he hadn't rushed off long ago. But he remained a stalwart part of our band until we were safely home.
Diomedes had grown particularly close to the old Paladin. His goodbyes were warm and hearty. A proper manly send-off!
And Keldorn would be no stranger. He lived less than a day's travel from here.
Keldorn often visited with his wife, Maria. They brought the girls on occasion too, whenever a day in the country was needed!
Even more, Diomedes remained in touch with the Order of the Radiant Heart and worked with all of the Athkatla paladins on occasion.
Of all my friends I most wondered what Aerie would choose to do. She had no obligation to us anymore, and she had not talked much about plans.
My Witch!
I think Minsc decided for both of them they would not be strangers. I always made it clear to them they had a home with us. And although they adventured together, they often came for us when they were on the trail of some new group of slavers. That always remained Aerie's driving passion. I don't know why the story started of her being a lone, avenging angel of sorts. She's a total team player. Also, well you know this, they were NOT ever a couple! I'm not sure Minsc would know what to do with that. He treated Aerie as a combination boss, mother and glass statue. He may have been the reason Aerie didn't raise her own flock until later in life though. Many men were intimidated by her devoted, looming bodyguard. Your brother... and your father and I were always glad she needed a couple decades to settle down.
You know I love you Aerie, but call me Mom again and you will get punched!
It was good to see Skie so engaged in helping out with our new army. She was never quite a drill sergeant personality! Not an officer either. But she was a decent teacher. And a surprisingly steady influence with a group of archers. You wouldn't remember, but she stayed with us for almost three years before heading home to Baldur's Gate. She is actually a combat veteran of far more experience than you'd ever guess. I know she often trained and fought alongside the Flaming Fist. In time, she became a very engaged ambassador too. Rarely in any official capacity.
I'm sure you'll remember how often Skie came to visit, and all the latest fashions she has brought for you every time!
We worked together often over the years. She worked for your father and I as often she did for Baldur's Gate. She has a gift for charm, and is far tougher than anyone expects. Its funny to remember as a young woman she was a bit of whiner. Oh seriously! Don't tell her I said that.
Its been an honor to have Nalia live here at the castle this whole time. She seems honestly happier in an administrative job than in charge of anything. But never forget, this is the De'Arnise Barony. We may have the title now, but she is the last De'Arnise.
Nalia I wish you'd let me introduce you by your full name. You are not just a clerk, or even a Steward. This land and building carries your name!
I hardly need to tell you that Aunt Imoen did not run off forming thieve's guilds all over Faerun. She hardly even stays at the Sphere back in Athkatla, she's in her quarters or her lab here in the castle most days. I don't think we've been on any sort of adventure or mission without her right there with us. When she does head into town it almost always means she has some new prank in mind to pull on the Cowled Wizards. And I do love watching the fall out from that! You know they've come here looking for her a few times. But you can always see them shaking in their boots. None of them want to face her, or me. They know when someone has no use for their self-important bureaucracy, and it takes every bit of self control I have not to squish them like the bugs they are.
My sister is never far from home.
And she's been a wonderful Aunt to all of our kids.
Our lives have been so wonderfully blessed. And your father is my constant, my irreplaceable better half. I've never doubted how fortunate I've been from that first day he "reported for duty" at Candlekeep and I saw him across the courtyard.
The first ten years at our new home brought new life to Diomedes and I.
I've worried a few times there was more to do than there was time in a day, or a lifetime. Diomedes always saw to the safety of the land and its people. He kept our guard and army strong, and personally faced every threat. I built and invented. The Castle has been expanded three different times, with all the friends and family living here we always need more room. I've learned both magic and engineering for the expansion, and for civil works projects throughout the Barony. And of course I started the business, first to sell my portrait machine and then other gadgets. Things that even non-mages can use.
Always remember, the tax revenue is only for the people and land. It is not for our personal use. The business should meet all of our personal needs. Never confuse those two.
Years passed and the family grew. And my portrait machine (and other toys) kept the family provided for.
Make no mistake dear one, your father and I will not be retiring any time soon. But I want you to know the truth of your legacy and heritage now. Treasure all those in your life, just as we treasure you.
Love Always,
Mom
*****
I hate to bring this playthrough, and this journal, to an end. As I said at the start, these characters were always special to me. And these last couple months they've come more alive than ever before. This has been a ton of fun, and actually a little emotional for me at times. I may revisit Diomedes and Psyche whenever we see a next generation of AI art, that I can figure out.
I don't think I'll do future playthroughs in anything like this level of detail. Although honestly, I never thought I'd keep this up all the way through. I expected several of the usual "and a bunch of stuff happened here" sort of updates. Of course, I did still skip over things. A lot of things. The Baldur's Gate Saga is huge. In the future I'll try a few more mods. I have at least three more runs for each BG and IWD currently in mind. Doesn't mean I'll do them all straight through though!
Next up, in a few days, I'll start a big IWD run. I'll cautiously say I hope to do a full illustrated run like I just did for BG. But no promises. Coming soon...
"Aias and the Aliens!"