Jill and Christopher - A Celebration of Mediocrity
atcDave
Member Posts: 2,661
A couple of exceedingly mediocre characters. Both will have exactly 70 combined ability points (official minimum is 76).
I already envision the great challenge of this run for me, will be how to write things up with a simpleton of a main character. I would love if readers could offer feedback and ideas. To be clear, I’m not looking for advice on how to play stupid. I can do that just fine, thank you. I’m looking for insight into a moron’s view of the World and adventure. A very *nice* moron.
This could be fun and I’m open to input. At this point I’m not feeling completely up to the challenge. You all will know, if I show more updates from Christopher’s perspective, it means Jill has defeated me.
And yes, I’m exaggerating it a little. Jill is almost average.
*****
Jill has always lived at Candlekeep. Her father, Gorion loves her, and has always encouraged Jill to do right by all those who come into her life. These have been key words, a theme for her life. But Jill has to admit, she often struggles to understand what would actually be most helpful and most appreciated to most people? She is just not intuitive (or insightful) about how to treat people.
As Jill grew into her teens she became aware that her hair color was unusual. She asked her father about that once, Gorion could only shrug. And said “you just came out that way.” Jill is not the sort to ponder it much more deeply than that.
Jill has tried several times to find a skill, a profession that would mean something to her and let her help people… with whatever it was they thought they needed. But everything she tried proved really hard for her. She tried learning magic like Gorion, that was hopeless. The weird words and letters made no sense to her.
Her father suggested she had a big heart, maybe some sort of clergy? It was embarrassing the things the priests said to her about that. She was apparently too stupid for a cleric too.
Jill’s friend Imoen said she could be a great warrior, she was clearly the bigger and stronger of the two of them. Doesn’t that mean she’s above average? The Watchers tried to talk her out of this too, and she was actually smaller than all of them. Jill was getting really discouraged. She heard one of the old guys say something about “good thing you’re cute, you don’t need to do anything else.” Well poo to that. What does that even mean?
Fortunately, something unexpected presented itself. Jill was dancing one night at the Candlekeep Inn, when a Watcher suggested she was graceful, maybe she should be an archer or a scout. She knew Imoen did some of that scouting stuff, but when Jill tried to tag along she just wound up giggling and ruining whatever Imoen thought she was scouting.
But an archer, using a bow. That was a thought. And it has worked out pretty well for her. She now knows, that really just made her a sort of warrior. She has learned how to use a sword, how to move around in different sorts of armor, a little about things like self defense and tactics (okay honestly, Jill might have failed that last class). But mostly, Jill has become a good shot with a bow. She knows she’s not world class or anything. But she has become a good enough shot she can be useful. The Watchers wouldn’t chase her off the wall now if an attacker came. Her trainer said she was good enough to be helpful! Actually he called her an “asset to Candlekeep”. Once she understood what that meant it made her feel good all the way to her toes.
Once she learned how to use a bow, things just clicked into place for Jill. Like she had found what she was meant to do.
This will be Jill’s image for the whole saga.
In these last couple weeks some interesting things have happened. First, a young cleric came visiting the library to do research on, um, something Jill completely didn’t understand. But he is sweet, and he makes her laugh, and they’ve been spending a lot of time together. His name is Christopher, and he has just finished training as a Cleric of Lathander. He is way nicer than that Cleric of Oghma who told her she was stupid. Jill has really enjoyed spending whatever time she could with him. He is really the first boy she has ever known that she wants to kiss. But he is just passing through? And she knows her father never wants her to leave Candlekeep! This is hard!
Jill was sure something electric passed between them when she met Christopher.
But then this morning, her father tells her they have to leave Candlekeep at once. This afternoon! He told her to go buy supplies for a trip. What does she need for a trip? Jill found Christopher and asked him. He had some ideas and helped her find some weapons and armor. He asked what was going on and if he could help more. Jill was almost in a panic over so much changing, Christopher said it would be all right. He would go find Imoen and they would follow along, that way they would all be together.
That makes Jill feel a lot better. She knew Christopher would be able to help.
Jill. A single class fighter. Short Bow specialist.
(Human Female, age 20, English, vivid purple hair in a pony tail, round face, soft shape, friendly smile, chain mail armor, yellow cape, bow, short sword)
9 – 16 – 12 – 10 – 8 – 15
Christopher grew up in Baldur’s Gate. Most his life he’s struggled to be useful to his family, or his friends. He’s always been smart! But more intuitive than book smart. He likes reading and learning, but only when it interests him. He isn’t physically very capable, he knows this. He isn’t very strong, and he is so clumsy it is beyond embarrassing. For all that, he desperately wants to help people. And he wants to be the sort that people know they can come to when they need help.
Christopher’s game portrait was much cropped (!) down from this render.
Becoming a Cleric seemed to satisfy all his interests and best abilities. He did well in his studies. Not as well with weapon training. And although he understands his studies, he struggles with articulating higher ideas. He had hoped that meant he was destined for work with the common folk. But the clergy higher-ups weren’t so sure. He was sent to run a remote temple, that he learned was really just a shrine. His duties consisted of passing offerings on to the main temple, and keeping the weeds trimmed. It wasn’t very fulfilling. He commented on this to a superior, to his surprise he was given a research project that required travel to Candlekeep. That was exciting! The subject he was researching was actually pretty theoretical and obtuse, he suppressed the thought it was busy work.
Candlekeep has been an electrifying experience for Christopher. The research was actually fascinating to him. But even better, he met a girl. It sounds so ordinary to say that, but she is amazing. He recognizes she isn’t a deep thinker, but she has a huge heart and will go out of her way to help with almost anything. She seems to smile and laugh as naturally as breathing. He is certain, if in the Great Library of Candlekeep he looked up the phrase “breath of fresh air” he would find Jill’s portrait attached.
His only concern, and he’s hardly had time to think on it much, is that Jill seems pretty locked in to remaining at Candlekeep. He is already dreaming of showing her all of Faerun, but he knows he’s getting ahead of things.
Going to Candlekeep was like a dream come true for Christopher.
This place is amazing!
But then today something dramatic changed. Jill is anxious that her father has decided they must leave on a trip *today*. He helped her get some things together for the trip, and he met up with Jill’s friend Imoen and they agreed they would follow along on this journey. They would hold back out of sight, Jill’s father does not seem to want the company. But they could follow, maybe help if needed. At least be together (?!) wherever Jill was going.
Christopher. A single class Cleric of Lathander.
(Human Male, Age 25, English, Dark blonde hair, a little chubby, soft, bashful smile, thin beard, chain mail armor, blue surcoat, blue shield with a yellow sunburst)
10 – 7 – 10 – 13 – 17 – 14
*****
A few comments as we launch into this.
Jill is the same character I used with “Aias and the Aliens” a few months back. She is based on a PnP character from my own game setting. She was intentionally nothing special. But she was a “Mutant” in that setting, her purple hair is the only visual tell. She also had “Kinetic Absorption”, an ability that reduced damage from physical attacks. I will amend her with EEKeeper to have 25% Piercing/Slashing/Missile resistance and 50% Crushing resistance. It will provide no help against magic/elemental/energy type attacks. But will help some with her lack of constitution bonus.
Both her hair and absorption will be considered artifacts of her unusual parentage.
Funny thing, this version of Jill does have one significant difference from PnP. She was originally a Cleric, but when I built the Aias team I didn’t need another cleric so I flipped her dexterity and wisdom. I had a lot of fun with that re-invention of the character, so she’s back!
Christopher is unique to this run. He has never appeared elsewhere.
It’s also worth mentioning these characters are mediocre, not *bad*. Their scores are shifted and optimized for the roles they play. They just have low point totals (both have 70) so they won’t be good at much else. As I mentioned up top, I think the real challenge here will be writing up the tale. How to describe the adventures of two unremarkable heroes. That may be its own sort of heroism.
The game builds will be the same as used previously on “Gerold and Louisa”, with a few new additions to BG2; “Dark Tidings” (an older Acifer mod I only just recently learned of), and a few from Lava’s Athkatlan Grounds series (Tangled Oak Isle, Alabaster Sands, Southern Edge).
I already envision the great challenge of this run for me, will be how to write things up with a simpleton of a main character. I would love if readers could offer feedback and ideas. To be clear, I’m not looking for advice on how to play stupid. I can do that just fine, thank you. I’m looking for insight into a moron’s view of the World and adventure. A very *nice* moron.
This could be fun and I’m open to input. At this point I’m not feeling completely up to the challenge. You all will know, if I show more updates from Christopher’s perspective, it means Jill has defeated me.
And yes, I’m exaggerating it a little. Jill is almost average.
*****
Jill has always lived at Candlekeep. Her father, Gorion loves her, and has always encouraged Jill to do right by all those who come into her life. These have been key words, a theme for her life. But Jill has to admit, she often struggles to understand what would actually be most helpful and most appreciated to most people? She is just not intuitive (or insightful) about how to treat people.
As Jill grew into her teens she became aware that her hair color was unusual. She asked her father about that once, Gorion could only shrug. And said “you just came out that way.” Jill is not the sort to ponder it much more deeply than that.
Jill has tried several times to find a skill, a profession that would mean something to her and let her help people… with whatever it was they thought they needed. But everything she tried proved really hard for her. She tried learning magic like Gorion, that was hopeless. The weird words and letters made no sense to her.
Her father suggested she had a big heart, maybe some sort of clergy? It was embarrassing the things the priests said to her about that. She was apparently too stupid for a cleric too.
Jill’s friend Imoen said she could be a great warrior, she was clearly the bigger and stronger of the two of them. Doesn’t that mean she’s above average? The Watchers tried to talk her out of this too, and she was actually smaller than all of them. Jill was getting really discouraged. She heard one of the old guys say something about “good thing you’re cute, you don’t need to do anything else.” Well poo to that. What does that even mean?
Fortunately, something unexpected presented itself. Jill was dancing one night at the Candlekeep Inn, when a Watcher suggested she was graceful, maybe she should be an archer or a scout. She knew Imoen did some of that scouting stuff, but when Jill tried to tag along she just wound up giggling and ruining whatever Imoen thought she was scouting.
But an archer, using a bow. That was a thought. And it has worked out pretty well for her. She now knows, that really just made her a sort of warrior. She has learned how to use a sword, how to move around in different sorts of armor, a little about things like self defense and tactics (okay honestly, Jill might have failed that last class). But mostly, Jill has become a good shot with a bow. She knows she’s not world class or anything. But she has become a good enough shot she can be useful. The Watchers wouldn’t chase her off the wall now if an attacker came. Her trainer said she was good enough to be helpful! Actually he called her an “asset to Candlekeep”. Once she understood what that meant it made her feel good all the way to her toes.
Once she learned how to use a bow, things just clicked into place for Jill. Like she had found what she was meant to do.
This will be Jill’s image for the whole saga.
In these last couple weeks some interesting things have happened. First, a young cleric came visiting the library to do research on, um, something Jill completely didn’t understand. But he is sweet, and he makes her laugh, and they’ve been spending a lot of time together. His name is Christopher, and he has just finished training as a Cleric of Lathander. He is way nicer than that Cleric of Oghma who told her she was stupid. Jill has really enjoyed spending whatever time she could with him. He is really the first boy she has ever known that she wants to kiss. But he is just passing through? And she knows her father never wants her to leave Candlekeep! This is hard!
Jill was sure something electric passed between them when she met Christopher.
But then this morning, her father tells her they have to leave Candlekeep at once. This afternoon! He told her to go buy supplies for a trip. What does she need for a trip? Jill found Christopher and asked him. He had some ideas and helped her find some weapons and armor. He asked what was going on and if he could help more. Jill was almost in a panic over so much changing, Christopher said it would be all right. He would go find Imoen and they would follow along, that way they would all be together.
That makes Jill feel a lot better. She knew Christopher would be able to help.
Jill. A single class fighter. Short Bow specialist.
(Human Female, age 20, English, vivid purple hair in a pony tail, round face, soft shape, friendly smile, chain mail armor, yellow cape, bow, short sword)
9 – 16 – 12 – 10 – 8 – 15
Christopher grew up in Baldur’s Gate. Most his life he’s struggled to be useful to his family, or his friends. He’s always been smart! But more intuitive than book smart. He likes reading and learning, but only when it interests him. He isn’t physically very capable, he knows this. He isn’t very strong, and he is so clumsy it is beyond embarrassing. For all that, he desperately wants to help people. And he wants to be the sort that people know they can come to when they need help.
Christopher’s game portrait was much cropped (!) down from this render.
Becoming a Cleric seemed to satisfy all his interests and best abilities. He did well in his studies. Not as well with weapon training. And although he understands his studies, he struggles with articulating higher ideas. He had hoped that meant he was destined for work with the common folk. But the clergy higher-ups weren’t so sure. He was sent to run a remote temple, that he learned was really just a shrine. His duties consisted of passing offerings on to the main temple, and keeping the weeds trimmed. It wasn’t very fulfilling. He commented on this to a superior, to his surprise he was given a research project that required travel to Candlekeep. That was exciting! The subject he was researching was actually pretty theoretical and obtuse, he suppressed the thought it was busy work.
Candlekeep has been an electrifying experience for Christopher. The research was actually fascinating to him. But even better, he met a girl. It sounds so ordinary to say that, but she is amazing. He recognizes she isn’t a deep thinker, but she has a huge heart and will go out of her way to help with almost anything. She seems to smile and laugh as naturally as breathing. He is certain, if in the Great Library of Candlekeep he looked up the phrase “breath of fresh air” he would find Jill’s portrait attached.
His only concern, and he’s hardly had time to think on it much, is that Jill seems pretty locked in to remaining at Candlekeep. He is already dreaming of showing her all of Faerun, but he knows he’s getting ahead of things.
Going to Candlekeep was like a dream come true for Christopher.
This place is amazing!
But then today something dramatic changed. Jill is anxious that her father has decided they must leave on a trip *today*. He helped her get some things together for the trip, and he met up with Jill’s friend Imoen and they agreed they would follow along on this journey. They would hold back out of sight, Jill’s father does not seem to want the company. But they could follow, maybe help if needed. At least be together (?!) wherever Jill was going.
Christopher. A single class Cleric of Lathander.
(Human Male, Age 25, English, Dark blonde hair, a little chubby, soft, bashful smile, thin beard, chain mail armor, blue surcoat, blue shield with a yellow sunburst)
10 – 7 – 10 – 13 – 17 – 14
*****
A few comments as we launch into this.
Jill is the same character I used with “Aias and the Aliens” a few months back. She is based on a PnP character from my own game setting. She was intentionally nothing special. But she was a “Mutant” in that setting, her purple hair is the only visual tell. She also had “Kinetic Absorption”, an ability that reduced damage from physical attacks. I will amend her with EEKeeper to have 25% Piercing/Slashing/Missile resistance and 50% Crushing resistance. It will provide no help against magic/elemental/energy type attacks. But will help some with her lack of constitution bonus.
Both her hair and absorption will be considered artifacts of her unusual parentage.
Funny thing, this version of Jill does have one significant difference from PnP. She was originally a Cleric, but when I built the Aias team I didn’t need another cleric so I flipped her dexterity and wisdom. I had a lot of fun with that re-invention of the character, so she’s back!
Christopher is unique to this run. He has never appeared elsewhere.
It’s also worth mentioning these characters are mediocre, not *bad*. Their scores are shifted and optimized for the roles they play. They just have low point totals (both have 70) so they won’t be good at much else. As I mentioned up top, I think the real challenge here will be writing up the tale. How to describe the adventures of two unremarkable heroes. That may be its own sort of heroism.
The game builds will be the same as used previously on “Gerold and Louisa”, with a few new additions to BG2; “Dark Tidings” (an older Acifer mod I only just recently learned of), and a few from Lava’s Athkatlan Grounds series (Tangled Oak Isle, Alabaster Sands, Southern Edge).
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ill and company have gotten off to a pretty good start. I had wanted to have this update done last Saturday, but the Microsoft Generative AI I favor was broken. It wasn’t actually fixed until someday Monday. The bad news is, this is running four days behind.
*****
Jill
Setting out from Candlekeep turned into something really bad. Gorion ordered me to run, I obeyed. But I heard horrible sounds of fighting behind me. I finally collapsed in tears after running as long as I could.
Soon Imoen was alongside me, and we grieved together. No words needed to be said.
Christopher stood watch nearby, let the two of us have this time.
[This opening led to an interesting first act. Christopher was on point, the team tank. He had 8 hit points, Scale Mail armor and shield, a war hammer that he has no bonuses with. But Jill and Imoen are quite dangerous with their bows. Well, more dangerous with their bows than in melee]
As we walked through the woods, we were forced to fight a few times. Once I had to use my sword.
I don’t like using the sword to much! But that little blue guy surprised me.
After a really scary journey, we made it to the Friendly Arms Inn.
It felt like we had just survived a nightmare. But I knew things wouldn’t be getting better anytime soon. My father was dead, and I was no longer safe at home. Christopher and Imoen would stay with me though.
We entered and found Gorion’s friends Khalid and Jaheira.
They had a mission, something about bad metal, so we agreed to travel south with them. This worked out quite well as they were both more serious kinds of fighters. They could block so Imoen and I could use our bows. Christopher stayed back with his sling, so he could heal too.
This seemed to work well.
In the next city, B something. Oh, I know! It was a bear and a ghost. Funny. But anyway, we met a mage girl. Her hair was as cool as mine! But she was being chased by some really nasty mages who wanted to cut her up. We couldn’t have that, so I asked her to stay with us.
Neera was funny. I think she wasn’t a very good mage. But she was funny.
She traveled with us down to Neshkill (?). But then she decided to go somewhere else. I think she wasn’t as scared any more.
We had to fight some woman who wanted to kill me. That made Christopher really angry. He even called her a bad name! We were going to head off to the mines next, but we met a confused Ranger who talked to his hamster a lot. But he said his witch was missing. I asked if she’d been turned into a hamster. I think I confused him more.
But no, he thought some nasty Gnolls had taken her, to eat her.
So we all set out to find Dina-somebody. We found a bunch of Gnolls in a ruined old fort. Chistopher knew a name for it and everything, but I’ll just call it old fort. We had to fight a bunch of those Gnoll things. Christopher used up all his healing magic because Khalid and Jaheira kept getting hurt.
But we found Dina! Minsc was really happy, and we got them back to the Inn in Neshkill.
Imoen had been studying a couple books she had and thought she could be a mage. Just like Gorion! That was exciting. But it meant she wouldn’t be as good a scout for us, so we’ll look for a new one.
We went the carnival, that was fun! I ate too much. We explored around the area some, and then got to the mines. It was full of those little Kobold things. Like dogmen with scales. And they smell! Especially underground. Oof, do not go there if you can avoid it.
We fought a lot of them, I used a whole bunch of arrows! And there was a big Orc guy deep into the mine. Christopher thought he was the bad guy’s boss, so we told he had to stop hurting people and ruining the metal. He looked at me like I was coocoo. So I had to shoot him, a couple times. What a jerk.
Later, we were exploring around the area when we found a halfling village. We met the nicest woman! She said she could help us with the scouting stuff. That made Christopher and Jaheira really happy. Imoen said really, she could do both jobs now. But Jaheira was worried she couldn’t “devote the attention it requires”. Oh boy! I asked them all to remember we’re all friends here, and this Alora was a scout AND a really good archer. So we could all be like bow sisters, and just go “Thwack” and kill the monsters! We laughed, and were ready to explore some more.
*****
I’ve done a few things different in this run. Some is just to be different. But I’m also trying to stretch the definition of a balanced team and see how effective we can be. And yeah, I’ve got three archers and slinger going now. A lot of missiles.
I think this will be the final form of the party, its now Jaheira on point with Minsc. I kept Khalid a lot longer than I normally do, I saw some “NPC Project” lines from him I’ve not seen before. But you know, by the 50th time I hear “My heart’s really not in this” he just had to go. So Minsc will hit harder but be less tanky.
Christopher will be a good cleric, and not much else. He does have the Gauntlets of Dexterity, which of course gives both plusses to hit and armor class. Bonus.
Jill is right alongside him. She has Mastery now with her short bow. And “The Dale’s Protector” gauntlets. So she hits often and pretty hard. She currently has over 40% of party kills.
The rear rank is Imoen and Alora. Imoen dualled to mage at 2nd level. Obviously she’s our mage. Who can use a bow. But she won’t be hugely effective with it.
Alora was rebuilt as a Fighter-Thief, short bow specialist. As a multi-class she won’t be as good an archer as Jill. But she will be pretty darn good!
One thing this party build will do is cause some scarcity of certain things. First, three archers using short bow. So short bows and arrows will be in demand. It may be a while before everyone has magic. Of course Imoen is a mage, so when she needs magic she can cast it herself.
All three of these women also use short sword! So another weapon we’ll have a tight supply of. Imoen will be able to use Quarter Staff, so she’ll likely do that.
I'd also like to mention I've been playing around with short video AI renders. I've got a couple of those up at Jill: Update 1 at DavesGaming.blog
Jill
I’ve been talking with Jaheira and Christopher about making us all into a strong team. Outside of Candlekeep, Faerun is a dangerous place. And people are after me. So we’re trying to all get better working together. I like all my friends, I don’t want any of them getting hurt because some big brute is after me.
So we’ve been exploring together. Eventually, we need to head north to fight some bandits. But Christopher and Jaheira both think we need some more practice together as a team before we go looking for trouble.
We found a whole town of those little blue guys. They are really kind of crazy. Why would they attack Minsc? I’m not even that stupid!
And we found a bunch of guys doing some, um, archie-something. Christopher told me all about why they were learning exciting things.
I am convinced Christopher was very excited. But then something went wrong and we were attacked by a bunch of the workmen. I felt really bad for them, it was like something got into their heads!
We fought a whole bunch of ogres. Jaheira and Minsc are really brave. They run right up to the brutes so the rest of us can shoot arrows.
We passed back through B, um bear and ghost, whatever. We stopped for a night at a good inn. Imoen took some time copying scrolls into her spellbook. It is so cool to watch! The scroll disappears *POOF* and Imoen scrambles to write it all down while she remembers it. She’s so smart. Just like my dad.
We explored some old mage school Imoen and Christopher wanted to see. It was over-run with spiders and wolves. Spiders and wolves! How did they ever get to be friends?
To the east we found a bunch of tombs. The dead guys were really not happy to see us!
*****
Am I overdoing it? I hope not. I’m having fun trying to look at things from Jill’s perspective. And in spite of what I said earlier, she’d not really *stupid*. Intelligence 10 and wisdom 8. So *almost* average. She can actually use the miscellaneous protection scrolls.
But I’m trying to write this from a very simple perspective. Jill cares about right and wrong. But that mostly means only hurting those who try to hurt her first. I think she vaguely understands there is real evil in the world, and she will fight it. But she will often need the help of her friends to figure out what that means.
I think the social dynamic of the group will have Jill the leader mainly in the charismatic sense of the term. Everyone likes her, she can keep the peace and she makes everyone feel wanted and needed.
Jaheira, and especially Christopher are the real brain trust of the group. Jaheira has the most worldly sort of experience. Christopher is clearly the wisest of the group.
Imoen is more of a puzzle solving sort of smart. And Alora is obviously needed for her skills.
That all means this is a fun team. Definitely less hard hitting than many of my previous runs. With Jaheira and Minsc on point, we have sort of a thin front line. Neither of them is extremely tanky. Archery is the team’s strength, especially Jill continues to rock for pure damage dealing. Obviously, I’ll need to rethink some of this in BG2 (more opponents immune to that sort of damage). But for now, a fun team.
Some of this renders are actually GIFs. To see them actually working in a post go to the update at DavesGaming.
We’ve continued to grow and develop as a team. Jaheira seems confident we can face a range of threats, the sort we’re likely to face as we explore more deeply into local bandit problems and the iron crisis.
As we worked our way up towards where we thought the bandit camp would be, combat against a range of enemies became more common. In one area there were more Gibberlings than I could even count! (Yeah, yeah, I can hear Imoen commenting that isn’t such a large number…)
I’ve had to learn a lot about camping out. I guess I’ve lived a pretty easy life with my father and friends until now.
I like Minsc! He makes me laugh. And he is so gentle with Boo. The furry guy really does seem to know things Minsc couldn’t? Wierd.
We made it into the bandit camp. Those guys do not scare me as much as just a couple weeks ago. I hated to have to hurt so many of them, but they are dangerous bullies. And we’ve seen too many people hurt or killed by them all to the south of here. They won’t do that any more.
Alora is like a mini version of my sister! And she fits right in with the two of us. I think Imoen likes not being the little sister.
After the bandits we had to go into the dark Cloakwood Forest to shut down a mine. Christopher thinks this is important, that the bosses of the bandits may be there? They seem a long way apart. But if it makes the roads safer for travelers I’m all for it!
We did a lot of fighting in the forest. Christopher kept us going in every way.
We found the mine was being worked by slaves. So we freed the slaves and flooded the mine. Jaheira wanted to talk to the boss man, but he started casting a spell so we had to fill him with arrows. His papers said something about a business in the city of Baldur’s Gate, so I guess that’s where we’re heading next.
Imoen and I had never seen anything like the city! It is huge! and sooooo many people. Imoen really wants to go shopping. Alora and Christopher were laughing at us.
We spent a couple days exploring around Baldur’s Gate. We were able to help a bunch of people. In one Inn, we got dragged into, well, it should have just been a brawl. But they wanted to use real weapons, and soon we had to get serious to stop them. That sucks.
The biggest thing we found was a Priest of Oghma told us someone was ruining their books. They were all moldy and rotten and just, icky.
That led us to something really evil down in the sewers. Those purple Mind Flayer guys. Christopher says they aren’t really demons, but I hope to never meet that sort of wickedness ever again.
There were only three of them, but it was a tough fight for the six of us!
Getting clean after that was hard work! We relaxed and had fun after. Tomorrow we have to help the Watchers… um not the Watchers! Whatever the guard here is called. But we’ll be busy for a while yet.
*****
Some major party growth in this period, but I’d still rate this crew as one of the weaker teams I’ve run. Significantly, I now have Jaheira equipped with the Boots of Speed and Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Her share of experience has jumped from around 20% to over 30% for this chapter. She is now the deadliest member of the team. Basically she has become the sort of alpha I always want on point. Jill’s percentage of kills has dropped, but she still is dangerous in her own right. She doesn’t hit as hard as Jaheira, but she hits more often.
My role playing challenge at this point is to show Jill’s growing confidence and capability, while still keeping her pretty simple and uncomplicated. I want to keep her as my primary narrator all the way through, and as I indicated before, she’s the leader in a charismatic sense and because the plot centers on her. But Jaheira and Christopher are the brains of the team. I don’t think its fair to describe any one of them as the leader.
Again, some of these renders are GIFs. To see them actually working correctly (!) check out the post at DavesGaming.
We finally took care of things for Scar, his buddies business was taken over by dopplegangers! These guys are hard to spot! Christopher says it easier if you know the people, ’cause they don’t know stuff. But I think knowing them would be worse for other reasons!
But we didn’t know Scar’s buddy. But we killed a bunch of dopplegangers.
We took care of another chore for Scar, then we checked out the Iron Throne building. We didn’t find anything very useful, although a few people attacked us. We did learn that the leaders had gone off to Candlekeep. So we all had to go to my old home. For some reason I’m a little nervous about this. It won’t be like home without Gorion there.
“Can you guys give me a couple minutes, so I can say hi to Winthrop?”
“Of course Imoen, he’ll be happy to see you!”
He was. Things started off pretty easy here.
Theodon and Jessup got to telling stories about me that everyone found very funny! Especially Christopher. I wanted to tell them to shut up already! But I’d never do that, they meant well.
We found the leaders of the Iron Throne. They made some threats. But it was just hot air in Candlekeep. Its not like anyone is going to get hurt here.
I found a note left for me in Gorion’s old room. I’m not sure I even understand, but I think part of me is some dead evil god. How does that even make sense? This is giving me a headache.
“I haven’t killed anyone! Well not recently. Not here. I didn’t do that!”
What a mess.
They locked us all up. Ulrant came and said some mean things to me, then Tethtoril stopped by and helped us escape into the catacombs.
Seems like there were undead, or more dopplegangers all over.
I was right, fighting dopplegangers is hard when you know who they’re trying to be.
We made it back to the Friendly Arms Inn. Christopher, and all my friends helped me feel better. This all so wrong! I’m not an evil murderer! My friends know that.
We talked about what to do next. Honestly I have no idea. Christopher and Jaheira said we should stay away from Baldur’s Gate, maybe things will sort out, or cool off. So for now, we’re heading to that haunted tower south of here to look for that dwarf’s missing dagger.
We had to fight just to get in the door!
The place is full of traps! Imoen and Alora are teasing each other to find traps. I think Alora is really much better now, Imoen spends all her time learning magic.
I fired Fire Arrows at some sort of demon lady. Yeah, I killed that.
A big update this time, finishing the main story of BG1 and moving into SoD. More comments after.
*****
We fought a lot of creatures, especially dopplegangers and undead in the lower levels of the tower. The bottom level was covered in an acid slime. Filthy, dangerous, nasty. One of the worst things ever!
We talked with the ghost of Durlag himself. I think. Christopher and Imoen got into a long talk about what all this was. All I know is this place is haunted. We killed a demon on that lower level. I had thought a demon fight would be harder? He was just full of hot air.
We went back to the fishing village to return the dagger to the Dwarf, but we were attacked by a group of warriors and thieves. We lost the dagger. But the dwarf knew where some cult was holding a dark ritual to summon another demon. Oof. Well we can’t let that happen!
This demon was a little tougher than the other one. Imoen hit him with some sort of acid globe thing (Jill will never remember “Vitriolic Sphere”!), the little squirt is funny to watch!
Then we took a boat ride to find some famous guys ship! I’ve never been on the ocean before. The island was over-run with two packs of bad doggies. We had to put a lot of them down. There’s a lot fewer dogmen now.
Then it was time to head back to Baldur’s Gate and see if we were still in trouble. We were. But soon enough Christopher was able to explain to the City Dukes how we’d been set-up by my brother, Sarevok. He was standing right there at the time. Awkward! He started a fight and we had to chase him down.
“We’ve come a long way Jill. We can do this, you can do this.”
We defeated Sarevok, we really filled him with a lot of arrows. Fast.
We were allowed to rest up at the Duke’s palace after, Imoen was getting some proper mage training from a nice Duke lady. The rest of us made a quick run to round up some of Sarevok’s followers.
Then Christopher and I got married! Wow! Married in a palace! To the best guy I’ve ever known. Then we said some goodbyes, everyone had things to do. The city is getting crowded now with refugees coming from some trouble up north. I think we’ll need to look into this. I’m working with my sword a little more, if its just Christopher and I, I should be able to cover him so he can pray and cast spells.
*****
A few thoughts on this sub-optimal team. Its really been fun, and with a combination of sensible tactics, and a lot of buffing sometimes, the team has been very successful.
One minor challenge, neither of my melee types (Jaheira and Minsc) were proficient in Long Sword, Bastard Sword or Dagger. Those are the only specific weapons that can harm the Greater Werewolves. That meant Minsc needed to take a weapon he wasn’t proficient in and buff up a little. It worked fine. Scratch three Greater dogboys.
Now getting into SoD there will be some changes to my team. Imoen and Alora are just not available. Jaheira is available late, but my plan is not to use her on this part.
So continuing with my theme of a sub-optimal team, Jill will take Jaheira’s place on point. She currently has High Mastery in Short Bow and Specialization in Short Sword. So yeah, she’ll be using her short sword for now. The “good” news is she can take Mastery in the sword at 9th level, which should come by the mid-point of SoD. The bad news is, that means she won’t have Grand Mastery of Short Bow until she hits 12th level sometime in BG2.
Remember Jill has a unique (if minor) form of damage reduction, that makes up for her middling constitution. Also now, with Draw Upon Holy Might she can get a 15 constitution.
But equipment-wise we’re in a good place for this change. Jill can take the Boots of Speed, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, a +3 Short Sword, a suit of Full Plate Armor, and a few other helpful things. That should all add up to saying between the build and the gear, Jill will be effective in her new role.
Minsc will remain in the second spot. He rocks, and he knows it! Or at least Boo knows.
Christopher is up next. All he’s really good at is being a cleric. We need one of those!
Then we have Dynaheir, Minsc’s witch. She is a capable mage and will fill the spot nicely. I like how having her along for this part of the adventure adds a little more drama to the start of BG2.
Flaming Fist Captain Corwin will join with us. With her at archer, Jill is less needed in that role.
And finally, the team recruits the refugee half-elf Erato, who they met at the Elfsong Tavern. She’s a Cleric of Tymora and a “Scout”. She is a custom created NPC via A7’s NPC Generator.
As with all things on this run, this is mostly a mediocre team. Corwin might be the ringer? She can tear up a battlefield. Let’s see how this goes!
As before, some of these images are videos/GIFs. They will display correctly at DavesGaming.blog
The mediocre team tore through Siege of Dragonspear in pretty good time. Jill was plenty effective on point, at least to say she makes a pretty solid tank. She is not extremely hard hitting (single wielding a short sword with shield). But that’s sort of the point with mediocrity, you can make up for a few deficiencies with *stuff*. But you can’t make up for everything.
The rest of the team is not particularly powerful either. Jill’s husband Christopher has a really good wisdom, but no bonuses anywhere else. Minsc is strong and can hit hard with his sword, but he’s actually more fragile than Jill. Dynaheir is a competent mage. And the new NPC Erato is a useful but not powerful cleric/thief. Corwin of course, as a Ranger-Archer IS powerful.
For those following along, it is true. I have created Bhaal-spawn Barbie. Often these renders really make me laugh.
This post will likely be all I do with SoD.
*****
After getting a few friends together it was time to march out with the army. Christopher and I thought it might be good to have Captain Corwin with us, with me using a sword for now we were down to the scout Erato as our only archer. And she’s not really a trained warrior at all.
Wow does Corwin make a big difference. She might be the best archer I’ve ever seen!
“Thanks for joining with us Shael. You’re awesome, and a really good shot and all. So this is just great and are all happy you’re here!”
Captain Corwin is sort of a grumpy one. I think I annoy her.
We fought more scary undead. We saw a Dwarf turn into an undead right in front of us! Wow, but obviously he was sort of stupid. We had to kill him then. I mean, shoot. Destroy him? That sounds better. If he hadn’t turned into undead maybe we all could have been friends, but yeah. He was stupid.
The Crusade blew up the bridge we were going to use, so we had to head to the next one. On the way we found an old Temple of Bhaal. It might even be where I was born? Some of the story seemed right for that. But it was all a pretty big deal, we killed a dragon! Wild right?
I guess the giants actually came first. A lot going on! Erato is a pretty good archer, she’s pretty good at a lot of things which makes her useful. She’s also a swell friend.
The dragon was scary. Minsc and I jumped at her hard, while everyone else cast spells or shot arrows. Seems a shame, she was really old. And we ended her. Why can’t monsters be nice?!
There was a whole lot of evil going on in that Temple. We found a few Crusade prisoners, we let them go. I won’t let anyone suffer like they were if I can stop it. I hope they quit the Crusade and we don’t have to fight them again, I’d feel bad to have to hurt them after saving them.
What Christopher called “The Mad God” had taken over the temple, but another group led by a purple squid head was fighting them. Evil all around! It made it easy to just fight everyone. The old temple isn’t so evil anymore! I wish we could have just burnt it.
We finally got to the other bridge, it was under attack by the Crusaders, but Christopher and Dynaheir had figured a way in for us.
We had to get by a couple groups of Goblins to get into the Bridge fort. Dynaheir is awesome now with big mage spells, Fireballs and stuff. She’s as good as Imoen, it will be great when we can get the whole team back together!
We got into the fort, and found our friend Khalid was running it now! Good for him! Actually it was a little bad because there were so many Crusaders just outside. So we came up with a plan where we brought the rest of our army to attack outside while the guys in the fort attacked coming out. Big battle. Just a lot going on.
After, I found our friend we’d just helped escape from the evil temple. I really hate all the killing and dying.
Then it was time to move out. Something really bad tried to take me on that bridge. I know it has a dark history connected to my bloodline. But wow. It was like something tried to take me over for a moment, I felt like I had to hold it in and beat it all at once, or it would hurt more people. THAT was not going to happen!
But now most of the soldiers think I’m something evil. At least my friends are all still with me. Although they understand this fight as well as I do, maybe better.
We finally made it to the camp. I could quickly tell we weren’t entirely welcome here. The Generals had a mission for us, Christopher said it was a really stupid mission, but at least it got us out of the camp.
We wound up at an underground entrance that led to Dragonspear Castle. We needed some information in there.
We had to fight some really evil trees! Crazy, right?
Amongst other things we did find Haephernon, Caelar’s number two guy, is working with some sort of Demon? Wild, but it proves this Crusade is evil at its core.
We rushed back to camp, and had a last meeting with Caelar before the fighting really got started.
The Generals said my team was back in camp as a last defense. Apparently, I was supposed to be in charge of this!
I briefly felt like this was too much. But my husband was right there, and I looked over my team and knew we had this.
And we did. We kept the camp safe from several attacks. The day’s fighting seemed to break the Crusade. Most of their army was either killed, or melted away. Corwin said this is common with “such rabbles”.
Whatever she meant, the Crusade was down just to the forces defending their Castle. And we had an attack all set up for the next morning.
When we blew up the gate and entered the castle, I was challenged to a duel by Ashateal, another of Caelar’s lieutenants.
Ashateal was a tall woman, with wings! She had some sort of not quite human in her, like me! But she really hated me, like personally. I’d never even met her before! [sigh] I’ve fought a lot these last few months and seen a lot of different ways of fighting… and a few dirty tricks. Ashateal really wasn’t very good at this. I meant to let her surrender, but she wouldn’t and finally ended up on the end of my sword.
I felt really bad about killing Ashateal. But the Crusaders felt worse and most of the ones still fighting just sort of quit after that.
Then we got into the Castle, and found Caelar and Haephernon in the basement. He wanted to open a gateway to the Abyss. I would ask “what was he thinking?” But we found very soon that he was some sort of little demon. A demonette? Or was he a devil? Ask Christopher.
We had to fight Haephernon and his boss. Caelar never wanted things to go like this, so we welcomed her to join our fight. She was a really good warrior! But what did she think was going to happen? I mean, sometimes I feel like a stupid fool next to my husband. (Hah! Jokes on him, he married me!). But anyway, Caelar was really the stupid fool. She made me feel smart! At least she saw her mistake and switched sides. When the Abyss was dropping in on her…
We defeated the Demons and returned home. Then, well, after the celebration that night; a friend of ours, Skie was murdered. I saw it all in a fuzzy dream. And I woke up next to her dead body in morning. Everyone thinks I killed her. I get it. But I didn’t!
That all led to us being kicked out of Baldur’s Gate in the middle of the night.
*****
Obviously, my next update will start with BG2.
A few thoughts as this continues on, I am really enjoying this run. I had worried a bit about finding the voice for writing up Jill. I was worried about a simpleton, good natured, but with an overly simplified view of things. Specifically worried about how to write this up. It turns out, I’m having a great time! Its quite different from how I’ve done it before. If you look at something like “Psyche and Diomedes” or “Chuck and Sarah“, those runs had much more insightful narrators. I don’t mean to sound smug, but to me their tone and narration seems more normal.
With Jill, I try to reduce thoughts to their most basic level and not look at much of the nuance. I do still see Jill as having some sense of humor, and a sense of wonder about the many things she can’t wrap her mind around. And maybe being a bit overly enthusiastic about her friends and loved ones.
And I just let her ramble more. She’s more “stream of consciousness”, less structured and edited.
The renders have proven more challenging than expected in one dimension. Jill’s description is so overly “cute”, the AIs either want to show her as an Anime or Disney character. I have dealt with that by building a model of her at OpenArt, so on these last couple updates whenever you can see Jill’s face I’m using that AI. But as before, it is a more limited AI for fantastical subjects. So we’re working around that as best as I can. One more challenge, just to keep things interesting!
Yeah, Jill is Bhaal-spawn Barbie.
As before, you can check out the post with a few video-renders at DavesGaming.blog