Brademante and Amyntor, Part Deux
atcDave
Member Posts: 2,962
This is a direct continuation of Brademante and Amyntor's run of Baldur's Gate I.
A couple thoughts about playing this team so far. No doubt Brademante and Amyntor are pretty mediocre characters. In terms of game mechanics they are no stronger than Jill and Christopher who I built with below the game minimum total points (70 for each). But role playing wise the difference is huge. Brademante is an intelligent and wise character. Aware and knowledgeable about herself and her world. And I like writing her as the well-educated daughter of Candlekeep. Apart from when I've actually played a mage, I think she is as well suited to the canon back-story as anyone I've run. That helps make these write-ups fun.
Just a recap of these two characters.
Brademante is Gorion's Ward. She is small at 5'2" and 100 pounds, but fit and agile. She is an unkitted Paladin, and takes the idea of making Faerun a better place very seriously. Since she is very charismatic (and quick!) she is always on point. This serves the story well, to have her doing all the talking. This all means she gets the best armor (and shield, for now) and will be the first in line to get strength enhancement (potions until something more permanent comes up).
She can wield short sword or morning star/flail. She is currently learning to dual wield, and will start doing so around 15th level.
Brademante’s game portrait.
12/17/13/15/17/19
Because I played SoD and use an xp cap remover, she (and Amyntor below) will come into this game with over 500k experience (closing in on 10th level Paladin). Also note she got all the point enhancements in BG1 except strength and constitution (Amyntor got those). This further improves her fitness as team leader.
Amyntor also grew up in Candlekeep as Imoen’s adopted brother. But he’s always had a more special relationship with Brademante. They both trained and became unkitted Paladins together. They were married when the party first entered the city of Baldur’s Gate. He shares his wife’s drive to make the world a better place. He has not wavered in his affection or devotion as her lineage was revealed, he believes in Brademante.
Amyntor dual wields, whatever combination of long sword and mace is most advantageous, obviously he will add weapons to his repertoire as he gains experience.
A new game portrait for Amyntor.
14/17/16/12/16/17
Because I *really* like GPT Image 2.0 I’ve redone the game portraits for all the characters I expect to use, again. I used source images either of their original portraits, or of previous portraits I was using. And I used written descriptions *derived* from those posted by zeno_42 at his excellent and useful site “zenosziggurat.com“. His descriptions were written for the older DALLE renderer which had some eccentricities, in some places changes/tweaks seemed in order. I will try to post all the new images I’ve done as more characters are introduced.
Imoen game portrait
Minsc game portrait.
Jaheira game portrait.
*****
A few notes about my build. I continue to use the EE version of the game with Tweaks and SCS (at “Improved” difficulty). I also have ZG’s Voices mod(s) that adds all voice sets from all IE games. It gives more choices for any game/character, and allows me to keep the same voice set for my characters going from BG1 to BG2.
I use A7’s “Convenient EE NPCs” to remove all EE NPCs from the game except Neera (whom I’m unlikely to use on this run). And SimDing0’s Quest Pack mainly for a couple of adventure tweaks I enjoy (not for the tactical enhancements, SCS does enough of that!).
The big thing is nine (!) adventure mods! Dang! This will be a long run…
These are, in no particular order; Skie – Cost of a Girl’s Soul (now expanded!), Wings, Bloodied Stings of Barovia, Dark Tidings, Call of the Lost Goddess, Throne of the Mad God, Tangled Oak Isle, Southern Edge, and Poisoned Pathways (the latest from Acifer and the only one I’ve not played yet).
And now, on with the show.
*****
We hadn’t got far from Baldur’s Gate when we were ambushed. First was a sort of toxic smoke, then thieves attacked, I think? We tried to fight, but we were all overwhelmed by the smoke. Then darkness.
I awoke in a cage, in a cold dark dungeon. I heard some voices. Amyntor! Maybe Minsc? But I couldn’t stay awake. I was in and out of consciousness for a while. It was either a few hours, or a few months. I don’t know. We were captured by the hooded man from my nightmares. He droned on about something, I couldn’t make sense of. He had hurt me somehow. Magically. I am sure I’ve yelled out a time or two, and I’ve heard my friends yell too. But usually with pain comes blackness, of unknown duration.
There was an explosion somewhere nearby and far away. A golem came and delivered a report to the hooded man. They ran off. I was still awake. My world was starting to come back into focus.
And Imoen was there.
“Hey you, we need to get out of here!”
She quickly picked the lock. Then she helped me out of the cage and up on my feet. She turned to another cage to get her brother out. My husband!
“You’re welcome. I’m assuming you meant to say ‘thank you’ because that would have been polite. Hello? Favorite little sister here…”
I was starting to feel more gathered. Still sore. And a little foggy. But more myself. Looking around we saw other occupied cages across the room. Minsc! Minsc was right there. He was in a dark mood. He informed us Dyna was dead. He had seen her butchered with his own eyes. My friend Dyna! I fought back tears. We had all just fled Baldur’s Gate together. Imoen said the lock was fused, she couldn’t pick it. I could see Minsc on the verge of destroying the cage with his bare hands, I provoked him a little.
Minsc was free pretty quickly.
He laughed at how I’d provoked him. I promised Minsc we would make our captor answer for our fallen friend. Right nearby I saw Jaheira in another cage.
“This is some sort of magic I’ve not seen before, it will need a special key.”
I noticed I did not see Khalid. Jaheira said she did not know where he was. I hope Jaheira hadn’t overhead what Minsc said about Dyna.
I told her we would search around and see if we could find a key. Amyntor and Minsc were discussing if they could destroy Jaheira’s cage.
We found a small storage room to the side. There was a table with some armor pieces. And a chest. Imoen immediately located a safe behind a painting on the wall.
“Brad! Its the Soul Taker Dagger! What did they do to it? It looks like someone used a magical sledge hammer on it.”
“Notice its not glowing anymore either. We need some help with this.” But it felt good to find it. Maybe it could lead us to Skie? Er, Skie’s soul? There was also a key in the safe that Imoen was sure would fit Jaheira’s cage. And another magic dagger. Nothing fancy, just barely qualified as magic. But sometimes a magic blade is useful.
“This is all in pretty rough shape.”
We had found a stash of weapons and armor. This might have been a junk room. But at least we had something. Amyntor, Minsc and I could all find somewhat usable gear. Jaheira was frustrated, she prefers a scimitar or a knotty club. Neither was in sight. She picked up a staff, its better than nothing. We handed the magic dagger to Imoen, nothing else fit her style.
“You guys know I’m not even trained in daggers right? Did anyone see a bow?”
Now, let’s see where the heck we are.
*****
I’ve never understood why mods to remove the opening dungeon even exist. I love having to re-equip a team from nothing.
A couple quick thoughts about the team. They are physically pretty weak. Only Minsc is legitimately strong with his 18/93. Next strongest is Jaheira with a 15. So only one character with a strength bonus. Obviously Strength potions and devices will be a priority.
But they are QUICK! Seriously. Imoen has an 18 Dexterity and is the quickest, Minsc is the most clumsy with a 16! The other three all have 17s.
Imoen is the smartest character with 17 Intelligence, Brad is number two with a 15. So at least the sisters are very sharp (actually that’s just sisters-in-law. Right? Right!).
Brad leads the way on Wisdom with a 17. Funny that’s a Paladin not a priest. But Jaheira and Amyntor would both be considered wise.
For now I’ll end this here. Next update should be up pretty quickly.
A couple thoughts about playing this team so far. No doubt Brademante and Amyntor are pretty mediocre characters. In terms of game mechanics they are no stronger than Jill and Christopher who I built with below the game minimum total points (70 for each). But role playing wise the difference is huge. Brademante is an intelligent and wise character. Aware and knowledgeable about herself and her world. And I like writing her as the well-educated daughter of Candlekeep. Apart from when I've actually played a mage, I think she is as well suited to the canon back-story as anyone I've run. That helps make these write-ups fun.
Just a recap of these two characters.
Brademante is Gorion's Ward. She is small at 5'2" and 100 pounds, but fit and agile. She is an unkitted Paladin, and takes the idea of making Faerun a better place very seriously. Since she is very charismatic (and quick!) she is always on point. This serves the story well, to have her doing all the talking. This all means she gets the best armor (and shield, for now) and will be the first in line to get strength enhancement (potions until something more permanent comes up).
She can wield short sword or morning star/flail. She is currently learning to dual wield, and will start doing so around 15th level.
Brademante’s game portrait.
12/17/13/15/17/19
Because I played SoD and use an xp cap remover, she (and Amyntor below) will come into this game with over 500k experience (closing in on 10th level Paladin). Also note she got all the point enhancements in BG1 except strength and constitution (Amyntor got those). This further improves her fitness as team leader.
Amyntor also grew up in Candlekeep as Imoen’s adopted brother. But he’s always had a more special relationship with Brademante. They both trained and became unkitted Paladins together. They were married when the party first entered the city of Baldur’s Gate. He shares his wife’s drive to make the world a better place. He has not wavered in his affection or devotion as her lineage was revealed, he believes in Brademante.
Amyntor dual wields, whatever combination of long sword and mace is most advantageous, obviously he will add weapons to his repertoire as he gains experience.
A new game portrait for Amyntor.
14/17/16/12/16/17
Because I *really* like GPT Image 2.0 I’ve redone the game portraits for all the characters I expect to use, again. I used source images either of their original portraits, or of previous portraits I was using. And I used written descriptions *derived* from those posted by zeno_42 at his excellent and useful site “zenosziggurat.com“. His descriptions were written for the older DALLE renderer which had some eccentricities, in some places changes/tweaks seemed in order. I will try to post all the new images I’ve done as more characters are introduced.
Imoen game portrait
Minsc game portrait.
Jaheira game portrait.
*****
A few notes about my build. I continue to use the EE version of the game with Tweaks and SCS (at “Improved” difficulty). I also have ZG’s Voices mod(s) that adds all voice sets from all IE games. It gives more choices for any game/character, and allows me to keep the same voice set for my characters going from BG1 to BG2.
I use A7’s “Convenient EE NPCs” to remove all EE NPCs from the game except Neera (whom I’m unlikely to use on this run). And SimDing0’s Quest Pack mainly for a couple of adventure tweaks I enjoy (not for the tactical enhancements, SCS does enough of that!).
The big thing is nine (!) adventure mods! Dang! This will be a long run…
These are, in no particular order; Skie – Cost of a Girl’s Soul (now expanded!), Wings, Bloodied Stings of Barovia, Dark Tidings, Call of the Lost Goddess, Throne of the Mad God, Tangled Oak Isle, Southern Edge, and Poisoned Pathways (the latest from Acifer and the only one I’ve not played yet).
And now, on with the show.
*****
We hadn’t got far from Baldur’s Gate when we were ambushed. First was a sort of toxic smoke, then thieves attacked, I think? We tried to fight, but we were all overwhelmed by the smoke. Then darkness.
I awoke in a cage, in a cold dark dungeon. I heard some voices. Amyntor! Maybe Minsc? But I couldn’t stay awake. I was in and out of consciousness for a while. It was either a few hours, or a few months. I don’t know. We were captured by the hooded man from my nightmares. He droned on about something, I couldn’t make sense of. He had hurt me somehow. Magically. I am sure I’ve yelled out a time or two, and I’ve heard my friends yell too. But usually with pain comes blackness, of unknown duration.
There was an explosion somewhere nearby and far away. A golem came and delivered a report to the hooded man. They ran off. I was still awake. My world was starting to come back into focus.
And Imoen was there.
“Hey you, we need to get out of here!”
She quickly picked the lock. Then she helped me out of the cage and up on my feet. She turned to another cage to get her brother out. My husband!
“You’re welcome. I’m assuming you meant to say ‘thank you’ because that would have been polite. Hello? Favorite little sister here…”
I was starting to feel more gathered. Still sore. And a little foggy. But more myself. Looking around we saw other occupied cages across the room. Minsc! Minsc was right there. He was in a dark mood. He informed us Dyna was dead. He had seen her butchered with his own eyes. My friend Dyna! I fought back tears. We had all just fled Baldur’s Gate together. Imoen said the lock was fused, she couldn’t pick it. I could see Minsc on the verge of destroying the cage with his bare hands, I provoked him a little.
Minsc was free pretty quickly.
He laughed at how I’d provoked him. I promised Minsc we would make our captor answer for our fallen friend. Right nearby I saw Jaheira in another cage.
“This is some sort of magic I’ve not seen before, it will need a special key.”
I noticed I did not see Khalid. Jaheira said she did not know where he was. I hope Jaheira hadn’t overhead what Minsc said about Dyna.
I told her we would search around and see if we could find a key. Amyntor and Minsc were discussing if they could destroy Jaheira’s cage.
We found a small storage room to the side. There was a table with some armor pieces. And a chest. Imoen immediately located a safe behind a painting on the wall.
“Brad! Its the Soul Taker Dagger! What did they do to it? It looks like someone used a magical sledge hammer on it.”
“Notice its not glowing anymore either. We need some help with this.” But it felt good to find it. Maybe it could lead us to Skie? Er, Skie’s soul? There was also a key in the safe that Imoen was sure would fit Jaheira’s cage. And another magic dagger. Nothing fancy, just barely qualified as magic. But sometimes a magic blade is useful.
“This is all in pretty rough shape.”
We had found a stash of weapons and armor. This might have been a junk room. But at least we had something. Amyntor, Minsc and I could all find somewhat usable gear. Jaheira was frustrated, she prefers a scimitar or a knotty club. Neither was in sight. She picked up a staff, its better than nothing. We handed the magic dagger to Imoen, nothing else fit her style.
“You guys know I’m not even trained in daggers right? Did anyone see a bow?”
Now, let’s see where the heck we are.
*****
I’ve never understood why mods to remove the opening dungeon even exist. I love having to re-equip a team from nothing.
A couple quick thoughts about the team. They are physically pretty weak. Only Minsc is legitimately strong with his 18/93. Next strongest is Jaheira with a 15. So only one character with a strength bonus. Obviously Strength potions and devices will be a priority.
But they are QUICK! Seriously. Imoen has an 18 Dexterity and is the quickest, Minsc is the most clumsy with a 16! The other three all have 17s.
Imoen is the smartest character with 17 Intelligence, Brad is number two with a 15. So at least the sisters are very sharp (actually that’s just sisters-in-law. Right? Right!).
Brad leads the way on Wisdom with a 17. Funny that’s a Paladin not a priest. But Jaheira and Amyntor would both be considered wise.
For now I’ll end this here. Next update should be up pretty quickly.
0
Comments
No, you did not miss Update 20! Just the way I’ve been filing my renders, the introductory BG2 playthrough post is filed as “Update 20”.
On with the adventure!
*****
We would quickly learn this place is huge! Our captor, the hooded man from my nightmares, has a significant underground complex. As we exited the area of our cells, our cages, we saw signs of a recent fight. Several fallen men, looked to be thieves. We carefully walked down a short coridor to a small room. There was some sort of magical contraption in the middle of the room summoning mephits? Little imp-like elemental trouble makers. We killed one and shut down the machine. Right next door was a large cavern. A djinn seemed eager to speak to me.
He had a riddle for me, a moral quandry if I would sacrifice myself to save my sister. I could only say yes.
He said my answer had consequences.
And an ogre appeared, to do battle with me.
We dispatched the ogre and the djinn reappeared. He gave a friendly warning that our escape would soon be noticed. And that seemed to be it. He disappeared.
There were two corridors heading off in different directions, one just ended in a sealed door we couldn’t open. But both corridors resulted in skirmishes with goblins.
Even poorly equiped as we are, goblins are not a serious threat.
We found a large magical lab of some sort, full of various creature remains floating in glass tanks. It was all quite revolting. Then we came to another store room, larger than the one near our cells. A large golem stood in the room. He spoke, but only to say he awaited a command. We searched the room and the golem seemed uninterested, so he wasn’t security!
Amyntor was thrilled, on one of the tables he found the sword Varscona. His main sword these last several months.
That was the first piece of *our* gear to turn up in this place. Even better for Amyntor, there was another fine, mildly magical long sword right next to it. So he was the first of us to re-equip with magic weapons.
We also found two nice scimitars for Jaheira, not magic though. Imoen found a short bow. And there were a few Healing Potions about.
Small wins, but we are growing more capable. A little.
We continued to face, and fight small groups of goblins. Usually less than a dozen. They were not a serious threat, but obviously if they escaped us we had officially been noticed! In another smaller store room we found a sort of magical command stone, Imoen thought it might go with the golem in the other room. When we handed it to him, he asked if we would like him to unlock the doors? Hah! Yeah that would be nice if we were going to escape this place!
While the golem ran off on his chore we resumed exploring. We cleared some goblins out of a library. Then we came to a large room, like a barracks and store room? It was the abode of several Duergar Dwarves. These guys could be a bit more dangerous than goblins!
I tried to play nice. I see no need to pick a fight with these guys. Duergar don’t have the nicest reputation, but if I can avoid killing six of them I will.
No luck. I said I had no quarrel with them, but apparently they had one with me. So we fought. They had a spellcaster that Imoen went right to work on while the rest of us cleared out the warriors. It wasn’t a hard fight. In the end, we found they had a nice suit of Chain Mail Armor, “Mail of the Dead”! That was the armor Amyntor had worn for several weeks a while back. Funny, we could call that recovering more of our gear, but we hadn’t owned it for quite some time. Well, its back on Amyntor for now.
From here we soon found we’d reached a dead end. So we doubled back looking for doors the golem may have opened. That first corridor near the djinn’s cave now had an open door so we went through. A dirty storeroom. But another hallway led to a nice bed room. Searching here we found two magic helms that had been ours. One, the very nice Helm of Balduran I had worn for the last few weeks. So I reclaimed that. The other, known as “The Eyes of Truth” just helps with the wearer’s night vision. It had been in one of our packs but no one regularly wore it anymore. Now we would! We still had a shortage of helms, so we put it on Minsc.
Right through a large archway we saw what looked like a forest. It was!
It was a large cavern lit by some sort of magical sun light, overgrown with trees! And there were three dryads.
They begged our help, they were prisoners. Concubines of Irenicus. Jaheira gasped. I know that name! He is a renowned powerful, and extremely evil mage. He is my hooded man! This huge complex seems fitting for such a meglomaniac. There is *no way* we are currently up to facing such a man. It added urgency to our need to *escape*. The dryads said Irenicus had their acorns somewhere and they could not leave here without them. Imoen produced a small bag of acorns we had found back with the Duergar. The dryads were very pleased, they asked we take them to their home grove and replant them. They gave us a place name I didn’t know, but we would find it when we were out of here.
Across the forest cavern we could see a smaller doorway. This led into another nice bedroom.
It looked beautiful, but Imoen reported it held many traps. She set to disarming them. We found a few baubles of note and worth, some scrolls. Nothing really telling.
But it was a woman’s bed chamber. An elven woman. None of us knew what elf would be associated with Irenicus. And it was trapped? A bad memory maybe?
Among the items we had found was a magical keystone, that should open a particular magical locked door. We knew of one we’d previously passed and still wasn’t open. So we backtracked again. Opening this door was surprising. It seemed to lead to an alternate dimension of some sort, like a pocket plane of the elemental plane of air? There was a huge wooden walkway floating above a swirling dark void. We walked in a ways, and fought a few more mephits. Annoying things. A little way in we saw a platform. There was a table on the platform, with an oil lamp.
Well hello!
Another djinn. He seemed friendly, an offered that he had something of mine. Well, he sensed a connection to me anyway. But he really wanted out of here. If we could help him escape he would return it to me. He needed his own lamp, not the trapped one he’d been forced into by Irenicus (!). He didn’t know where it might be.
The dryads came to mind as the only ones who would actually talk to us, so we ran back to them. Indeed, they actually had the item. They happily gave it to us, and we returned it to the djinn.
He gave me a two-handed sword. Huh. We’d never owned it, but I recognized it. It was the sword used by Sarevok when we faced him. And gee, my buddy Minsc uses a great sword. So we now have another good magic weapon for the team.
We weren’t sure exactly were to go from here, but we had a few other magic items on us now than we did an hour ago. So we checked out some oddities. Like a transport portal in a storeroom, now seemed ready to respond… to something we were carrying. We stepped through, into another store room.
And met Yoshimo.
He was looking through crates. He reported, like us, he had been a captive until just recently. Now he wanted to escape Irenicus. But he was frustrated because the next room had several devices that kept summoning mephits. Good to know! There were apparently four of them. So we set three of us to battle mephits, while the other three would shut down or destroy the summoning devices.
That was an easy enough fight, but the room held a horror.
We had found Khalid.
Our missing friend, and Jaheira’s husband, lay butchered on a large table. He was long dead. We had obviously been here many weeks. My friend Jaheira, she plays stoic. But I can see her trembling. I tried to offer support but she swatted me away. Very well, we will talk when she is ready.
We still had a ways to go, but things started to blur together. Another magic research room, this one seemed to be devoted to cloning a particular young elven woman. Was this related to the trapped bed room? It seems Irenicus has an obsession. We found a large trapped audience chamber of sorts. A foundry being worked by more duergar dwarves. A library holding a trapped doppleganger.
In one room was a fight between a vampire and a group of thieves.
The thieves were dressed like the slain intruders we’d seen elsewhere in here. We helped take down the vampire. Thinking, hoping we could talk with the thieves. But no, as soon as Amyntor skewered the vampire the thieves turned on us.
But then we finally found a way out! A ramp leading up. We could see sunlight ahead, and hear some fighting.
As we stepped into the sun we saw Irenicus was battling thieves.
Battling may be an exageration. He destroyed them. Imoen fired off a Magic Missile his way, but soon a group of mages teleported in. They boldly yelled Irenicus was under arrest! And Irenicus slew them all quite quickly. Another group teleported in. After killing a couple, Irenicus said he would only be arrested if they took Imoen too. She had also used magic!
What?! More mages were coming in. A couple grabbed at Irenicus and teleported away.
Another grabbed Imoen and they teleported off.
In a couple hours I’d lost Dyna, Khalid and Imoen.
Obviously this is all my fault. I’m a horrible leader. None of these people should be here with me. How many more of them will die?
We don’t have time for self pity.
Jaheira said we were in Athkatla, the City of Coin. The capital of Amn. And a city where public magic use is illegal.
What have they done with Imoen?
Jaheira didn’t know, but she had friends here. People we could ask.
Casual conversation with some witnesses confirmed all of what Jaheira said. None of them knew where “magical deviants” were held.
First thing, we need some better gear. And probably some rest. Jaheira knew a shop nearby.
Walking by a circus tent I saw a sobbing child. He said his mommy had taken him to the circus, but now she was still in the tent and the guard wasn’t letting anyone in.
Oh really? I walked over to talk with this guard. He said something had gone horribly wrong inside, some dark magic. I told him we could take care of ourselves. Let us in, we’ll fix it.
Entering was like stepping into another world. It was huge! There was a bridge over to a palatial circus tent. A djinn stood guard with a riddle. It was a stupid math story, Imoen could have answered it in her sleep. So I did instead, with a little more thinking than Imoen would have needed.
We entered the inner tent.
An ogre spoke to us in the voice of a young woman. And warned us to go back, this was all a dangerous illusion.
Wait, no. I’m not afraid of illusions. She (?) said she was chained and needed to be free. I didn’t see any chains. Illusions. We looked around a little.
As Amyntor assured a spider that her son was waiting outside, I thought two peasants were moving with odd aggresion towards us.
Indeed! They were armed orcs! They seemed to disolve when slain. Except for a magic sword left behind. We walked back towards the ogre, who excitedly said “that’s the key! give it to me!” I had detected no evil on her so I did.
The ogre turned into Aerie. She said a gnome circus performer had gone mad and created this realm of illusion. Her uncle was among his captives, she begged our help to find him.
We all advanced up a grand staircase into a plush sort of classical temple. And we were attacked by shadows and werewolves. This should have been an easy fight, if we were properly equiped. But only Amyntor and Minsc have magic weapons. We found Jaheira and I could dispatch illusionary monsters, but there were some real ones too. They needed magic. So the fight was harder than it should have been. But we prevailed.
The djinn from the bridge stood at the next staircase, and warned us we were entering the domain of Kalah, master illusionist. I guess that’s what we’re looking for!
The ogre laughed and announced he was Kalah.
Aerie muttered “the gnome”. There were more werewolves and shadows, but we focused in on the ogre. He fell with a shriek, and the whole illusion quickly disolved. A gnome lay dying in the dirt of a small circus tent.
Aerie saw a puddle of slime in one corner had turned back into her uncle… an older gnome? We would learn Aerie had spent many years as a slave in this circus, and had been mostly raised by the overseer. The kindly gnome. We also found the woman who was seperated from her son and sent her back outside.
It started with that I think. I’m feeling much steadier now. I’m ready to face some things.
Aerie was free now. With the death of Kalah the circus passed to Aerie’s Uncle Quail. And he released her.
Aerie wanted to see the world, and eagerly asked if she could accompany us. Careful what you ask for girl…
Aerie is a cleric of a gnomish deity (!) and a mage. Well we can use both of those! “Okay. Just know Aerie you catch us at a low ebb. We’ve lost several dear friends, and most of our gear. If you join with us I will fight for and protect you as best I can. But we live a dangerous life and there are no gauruntees. And we may be at odds with the Athkatla authorities. At least to say, my first priority is releasing my sister from their custody.”
“You fought to save me, my Uncle, and reunite that woman with her son.”
“We fight to make things right. Its not always easy, or even clear. But we do our best.”
Aerie was one of us now. She has led an oddly sheltered sort of life so far. So she is not very different from myself.
From here, we could see the outfitter Jaheira had mentioned.
So tell me sir, are you in the habit of letting folks as scruffy looking as me into this shop?
Hah! If they serve adventurers they do! And they did.
We have amassed some coin, and a small pile of valuables in the last couple hours. So we went inside to see what all we could sell and what we could buy.
We did alright. For now, we will leave Amyntor in his magic chain mail. Minsc, Jaheira and myself all got non-magical plate armor. We bought a mildly magical short sword for me, and a newer shield. Aerie had never traveled, so we needed to get her a traveling spell book. Obviously that meant she had NO spells for it. We spent as much as we could on spells for her new book. A handful of 1st – 3rd level spells. She can cast 4th level too, but we couldn’t afford anymore for now.
I also asked about the damaged Soul Taker Dagger we had, if the proprietor had any idea who could help us get someone out of it! He looked amazed, that is not an easy artifact to damage! No, he decided. He knew no one who could help.
As we left the shop, the dwarf out front said he had over heard some of our converstaion. And he suggested a mage and sage named Nem, who worked around the Slums District, might be able to help. I felt very pleased to hear that, an actual lead on this thing.
We checked into an inn to get some sleep, before some of us started falling over.
We all felt clean and refreshed the next morning! Ready to face some new challenges.
I will continue to keep an eye on Jaheira. I wish she could share her grief better. But at least she is still with us. Aerie is full of questions. I answer all as best I can. I think she will be a good addition to the team. Yoshimo is quiet, watching closely. I’m less sure about him fitting in.
*****
A few notes, things about my own head canon on things.
“Traveling Spell Books” were a thing in Unearthed Acana originally, I think. For 2E maybe in the Mage’s Supplement/Handbook? But the IE games don’t really mention them, except for the use of a “spellbook” tab to access an arcane caster’s spells. Since SCS wipes out any spellbook on a new spellcaster, it fits nicely into the idea of a physical notebook that an arcane caster carries. Both Imoen and Aerie start here with no actual book, so they build from scratch. It makes perfect sense. Less sense for when I recruit Nalia next, but that’s fine. Its a little tight for now while we are broke (!). But this situation will improve quickly.
I had hoped you would see Brad’s distinctive yellow shield in that last render. But I got a render I Ioved, with no real place to put the shield! I’ve mentioned before my thought on such devices. I think Cantrip Magic makes it pretty easy for any mage to alter the look of adventuring gear. I can easily imagine adventurers adopting their own symbols for family, homeland, faith, or just things they think are cool! So yeah, Brad will carry her traditional shield, at least until she switches over to dual wielding later in the game.