An Orphan's Tale [as written in the diary of Deirdre Bookchild]
Son_of_Imoen
Member Posts: 1,806
Having read the start of @typo_tilly 's Adventures of Tilly Thistlebottom, I got in the mood for reading and writing roleplaying playthroughs, like @deltago 's Storied Playthrough: Sahil and @Lemernis ' Let the Fates Decide.
This playthrough is about experiencing the game from the eyes of Gorion's fosterchild, as I have created her. It has the purpose of avoiding meta-gaming, by making decisions as Deirdre would take the, rather than from @Son_of_Imoen's metagaming knowledge and foremost, about writing a story that's [hopefuly] fun to read [and write].
As a IRL person, I'm very bad at drawing lines for myself and as the point of the game is having fun, I won't go through the struggle of trying to limit my chronic reloading habit. This is not a minimal or no-reload playthrough. If a particular fight makes me reload, I guess I'll make use of 'Deirdre had a sense of foreboding' as an excuse to take a different approach, although from the same save-game she would technically and RP-wise have the same knowledge as the previous time I entered the fight.
Some info about mods though. As I already have two campaigns going and unlike with vanilla BG, I don't know of a way to create a separate install with each it's own mod-setup, the setup is the one I already had but run from a different user account [using Shift-Rightclick on the shortcut 'run as a different user'].
My bread-and-butter mods are BG2Tweaks, Rogue Rebalancing and Swordcoast Stratagems. I have not however installed all difficulty enhancements of SCS and should note that from BG2Tweaks I always play with the NWN-style level-up and 100% chance of learning spells to make the game less frustrating. NPC-wise the banters of NPC1Project will enhance roleplay and Finch will be present in Candlekeep and later on somewhere on the road. I also added quests from the mini-quests and encounters and Sirine's Call mods.
If I as an author want to add something to the posting of the playthrough, I'll use italic to seperate my own writing from Deirdre's.
These are Deirdre's stats:
name : Deirdre Bookchild
race: gnome
gender: female
class: Illusionist
STR: 8 - hey, she's just a tiny gnome
DEX: 17 - quit nimble I hate having my mages drop like flies
CON: 15 - luckily, she's healthy and hardly ever ill again, I hate having my mages drop like flies
INT: 17 - mostly from studying a lot
WIS: 8 - most she knows about the world stems from books, real people are very strange, in Deirdre's opinion, making it hard to know how to deal with life
CHA: 14 - though she's not apt at dealing with people, her cuteness and looks mostly cause people to react favourably to her
Having read through my own post I now realise why sometimes I find the game to be too easy... But now I'll quit writing and let Deirdre Bookchild have her say. I hope you enjoy!
This playthrough is about experiencing the game from the eyes of Gorion's fosterchild, as I have created her. It has the purpose of avoiding meta-gaming, by making decisions as Deirdre would take the, rather than from @Son_of_Imoen's metagaming knowledge and foremost, about writing a story that's [hopefuly] fun to read [and write].
As a IRL person, I'm very bad at drawing lines for myself and as the point of the game is having fun, I won't go through the struggle of trying to limit my chronic reloading habit. This is not a minimal or no-reload playthrough. If a particular fight makes me reload, I guess I'll make use of 'Deirdre had a sense of foreboding' as an excuse to take a different approach, although from the same save-game she would technically and RP-wise have the same knowledge as the previous time I entered the fight.
Some info about mods though. As I already have two campaigns going and unlike with vanilla BG, I don't know of a way to create a separate install with each it's own mod-setup, the setup is the one I already had but run from a different user account [using Shift-Rightclick on the shortcut 'run as a different user'].
My bread-and-butter mods are BG2Tweaks, Rogue Rebalancing and Swordcoast Stratagems. I have not however installed all difficulty enhancements of SCS and should note that from BG2Tweaks I always play with the NWN-style level-up and 100% chance of learning spells to make the game less frustrating. NPC-wise the banters of NPC1Project will enhance roleplay and Finch will be present in Candlekeep and later on somewhere on the road. I also added quests from the mini-quests and encounters and Sirine's Call mods.
If I as an author want to add something to the posting of the playthrough, I'll use italic to seperate my own writing from Deirdre's.
These are Deirdre's stats:
name : Deirdre Bookchild
race: gnome
gender: female
class: Illusionist
STR: 8 - hey, she's just a tiny gnome
DEX: 17 - quit nimble I hate having my mages drop like flies
CON: 15 - luckily, she's healthy and hardly ever ill again, I hate having my mages drop like flies
INT: 17 - mostly from studying a lot
WIS: 8 - most she knows about the world stems from books, real people are very strange, in Deirdre's opinion, making it hard to know how to deal with life
CHA: 14 - though she's not apt at dealing with people, her cuteness and looks mostly cause people to react favourably to her
Having read through my own post I now realise why sometimes I find the game to be too easy... But now I'll quit writing and let Deirdre Bookchild have her say. I hope you enjoy!
6
Comments
Gorion has been acting strangely of late, distant. Oh, who am I kidding, I've always felt distance, I've always felt like being a stranger among the monks living in these hallowed halls. Even though the old sage tried his best to be a good father, told me about right and wrong, told me lots of stories and tales from which I might gain some wisdom (though I never understood what the people in those stories were on about) he never hid from me the fact that he is my foster-father. And I, an orphan. But no matter how I probed, asked, begged, tried luring him in a situation where he would tell me unaware, he never told me whom my parents where.
They must have been gnomes, like I am, living underground, but I myself have never been underground, never been below Candlekeep. It's not safe there, they told me, the dead haunt the hallways below ground. It scared me enough never to venture there. I did however spend hours in the library, devouring any book I found that had even a titbit of information about gnomes. But of course, those books didn't tell me whom my parents were, what they looked like, where they lived. Was my father a miner, a leader of his clan, or just a slave, held captive by some orcish tribe? Is that why I am an orphan, because my father and mother where captured and slaughtered by orcs? Are they dead, or still alive, but hungry, scared and being worked to death in a mine run by monsters? Often enough I cried myself to sleep, visited by restless thoughts and after I went to bed, nightmarish dreams of distance, of screams, of blood.
And now even Gorion doesn't sleep sound it seems, I can hear him pacing up and down the hallway past our cells. One night when I tried to sneak into the library to find comfort by reading a book by candlelight, I couldn't do so in secret as Gorion was already there. I heard him mumbling in a worried tone. I tried to sneak up, but the floor creaked and I hurriedly sped away. I wish I could sneak up on people as silently as Imoen does. Dear diary, I haven't told you about Imoen yet. She's the other orphan living here. Maybe I'll tell you more about her later. Even though I have been finding solace in writing for close to half an hour now, I really shouldn't be tarrying. Gorion just now told me to get some equipment for the road and hurry, “we should leave my child, it's a matter of urgency”.
Having been confined to the library keep and it's near surroundings I have long wondered what the world out there would be like. All I could do was listen to Gorions tales, ask questions and if he wouldn't answer or grew tired, I got into the library to look for answers myself. Still, reading books about the world gives a sense of comfort, but really going out there?
Suddenly all those tales of monsters and wars scare me. How can I be prepared for the road? Gorion has given me a staff and said I should practice using it. The only 'weapon' if you might call it I'm familiar with is the sling Hull gave me, when he saw me involved in pebble-throwing games with Imoen: we put up rag dolls on the far side of the garden and tried to hit them with a stone. Hull said I could throw a pebble farther if I used a sling and he taught me how. Sometimes I went out with the game warden to hunt some birds or small animals for dinner for the monks. But I usually missed.
Apart from that, I did learn some magic tricks, studying under Gorion and on my own with the tomes in the library. I know how to spook away pupils in the library, when they start bullying me, I taught myself some protective magic to armour myself from their kicks and slaps when they 'wanted to have some fun'. Apart from that, all I know is how to identify ancient artefacts, that's not the kind of spell you could hurt a monster with. Dear diary, I am scared of what is to come...
Eh, yeah, I should do some shopping for the journey. But what do I need? When I talk to Winthrop, he asks me for a book worth 10.000 gp. But I am already living here! That rule doesn't apply to me! I tell him so each time he asks me, but he always says it's a joke. I don't understand people, why can't they just say what they mean? He asks me what I want. What do I want? I haven't a clue what I need for.. what journey actually? Gorion didn't even tell me where we are going.
Winthrop asks me if I want a drink, or a room. A drink, well that would be a good start. Calm my nerves a bit and think. I order a mead while I sift through his wears – weapons, all kinds of weapons. His inventory resembles those of a blacksmith more than that of an Innkeeper of a monastery. The only thing I know how to make use of is a sling. I stuff my pockets as full as I can on bullets, finish my drink and say goodbye.
Goodbye.. I really am going away here. Will I come back? Does it matter, whom am I close to anyway? Not many people. But I should say goodbye to at least some of them. What would they think of me when I wouldn't? People sometimes get angry for the strangest of things.
I should at least say goodbye to Firebead, who has just come back from a journey of his own. He lives elsewhere, but often visits us and he's often been nice to me, While I'm searching for words to tell of my departure he gives me a chore to get a scroll from Tethoril. When I head back to Firebead he blesses me 'for any evil you might need tonight'. So, he DOES know I am going, why send me on an errand than? People are strange and I feel like a stranger among them.
Tethoril did know of the journey and asked me to hurry and so I do, toward the library steps following the quiet path through the gardens that I like so much but I stumble into Imoen anyway.
Maybe it's time I told you something about Imoen, dear diary. She's an orphan, just like me, but a much more outgoing type. Still, she can make me laugh. She does these pranks to people. Those jokes I can understand. Not saying one thing while you mean another, but doing unsuspecting things that make people wonder and just makes them a little bit annoyed. Alas she runs faster than I do and it's often me that gets a spanking out of it. Still, she makes me feel a bit safer. Would she come along? "Gorion wouldn't let me do so, not after reading the letter he got" she says. What letter? What kind of secrecy is that? But she's off.
I still got to say goodbye to Hull who let me learn how to use a sling. “Uh, Hull, hello, I will be going”. “Uh, what?” he says, “sorry, I've got a terrible headache. And I forgot my sword. The captain will be so angry, could you get it for me?” Sigh, another old man who's more busy with his own worries. Yeah, yeah, I'll get your sword. At least the Gatewarden is helpful. He knows of my departure. “Remember how we went out hunting and you used your sling against birds? When going on a journey, you need to know a bit more about mass combat. Obe will teach you”. Obe - being the Illusionist who helped me perfect my Spook spell - I have confidence in. And I'm real desperate for getting to know how to defend myself out there.
One thing I did learn from the practice Obe gave me is warriors are much better at bashing those vicious gibberlings and xvarts than mages. I wish I wasn't so weak and a real warrior like Arkanis. But Arkanis isn't real either, he's just an illusion. I wish he wasn't and I could take him with me. I didn't dare ask Fuller though, whom I saw in the barracks, I just slipped quietly passed him. I asked Reevor, who's a warrior too but at least a 'shorty' like me, but he just got mad at me for not having cleared the cellar of rats the day before today. With Hull sending me to Dreppin, Dreppin sending me to Phlyddia I am actually glad to hurry to Gorion and leave this place.
To be continued.
Dear diary,
Breath, breath deep, in, out, in, out. Dear diary, sorry for my shaking handwriting, I'm trembling with fear. Gorion is dead! We were ambushed, in the forest just a few miles beyond Candlekeep. Men with arrows, a spellcaster, a very big armoured man with a sword. Gorion told me to run and I did, but I got hit by an arrow that bit me real painfully with some kind of acid. It seems to have healed overnight, I'm not wounded, but very scared. And Gorion is dead. Dead! There's one piece of consolance though, sorry, two – you are also comfort to me, dear diary - Imoen found me on the road.
I don't remember much after that scare. I remember running, falling, running again and hiding. And then nothing. I must have fallen into a sleep. When Imoen woke me, I thought I'd had a nightmare. But it wasn't a nightmare. Imoen told me she had scaled the walls and secretly left Candlekeep to follow us, as she was worried about me. She followed us from a distance and heard the noise of fighting. When she got there, she saw Gorion lying dead, so it wasn't a horrible dream, it was real. Imoen was real anxious about me and started searching when daylight had broken and she could look for trails of my passing. I'm glad she found me and the armoured men didn't, I have to thank the darkness for covering my tracks till dawn.
I'm dying for a cup of tea to calm my nerves, but Immy says it isn't safe to make a fire. We've discussed what we should do. I know I was tolerated in Candlekeep because of Gorion's influence, but without him as my mentor, I'm afraid Winthrop's joke will come true: I'd need the 10.000 gp book to get back in. Besides, Gorion, just before we left, said I wasn't safe in Candlekeep, though I fail to understand why. But apparently, someone wishes me dead or captured. “Hand over your ward”, the armoured man said, meaning me I guess, as there was no one else. But why?
Imoen talked again of the letter she did mention yesterday. Something must be written there that might give a clue, or is that wishful thinking of my part? "What's in it" I asked her? "I don't know", she said, "it was something about danger, but then I almost got caught sneaking into Gorion's room and I quickly hid. But I saw Gorion put it in his pocket, we should search his body". Good point. Besides, it's only proper to bury Gorion, I am an orphan, he's not my 'dad', but I owe him that for at least raising me, teaching me to read and write and read all those wonderful books in the library and … oh, how I miss the library … I shouldn't be thinking about it now, my heart aches to much. Let's find Gorion, Imoen knows the way. Thank Oghma she's here.
Dear diary,
We're on our way to the Friendly Arm Inn now, sneaking a bit scared through the woods. Well, I'm scared anyway. Imoen keeps the mood up. She won't leave me she says, and keeps babbling about adventure on the roads. We're nearing the Lion's Crossroads now and luckily, not much happened yet. We've found Gorion – and indeed a letter on his body – and Imoen equipped herself with some leather armour and a sword she found on the warrior. Though it's bigger that the ones she knows how to wield she says. And I'm not very good at handling the staff I have, it's more a sense of safety hiding behind such a long stick, than real safety, seeing how clumsy I wield it.
We decided we should just run and pelt the enemy from away if we run into trouble. We didn't run into trouble though, we ran into a messenger. He said bandits plague the roads, Maybe we should avoid the road. We also ran into one friendly old man, who reminded me a bit of Gorion. Somehow that hint of familiarity gave me the courage to ask for the Friendly Arm Inn. I didn't write about it yet, but Gorion insisted that if we'd become separated – and what a separation death is! - there's two friends of his staying there, whom I should ask help from.
I'll write later, we start searching that inn now, straight north, avoiding the road, we don't want to run into a bandit ambush.
Dear diary,
We managed to find the safety of the Friendly Arm Inn, but not without troubles. Avoiding the roads because of the bandits, we still ran into a gibberling (I recognized the strange creature from the bestiaries I read at Candlekeep), but more frightening was a man we met at the steps of the Friendly Arm Inn. He told me he would show me to the friends I seeked, but I didn't really trust him when he asked if I was Deirdre Bookchild. He seemed somewhat sinister, not the kind of man Gorion would be friend. And indeed he attacked. Of course, I couldn't attack back. It's against the rules of the Friendly Arm Inn, so I ran. Always the safe thing to do.
Luckily the guards started interfering, attacking him as he was obviously the aggressor. But he still came after me, so I flung my spooking spell at him at the same time as he was targeting a spell at me. When I came to, Imoen told me I dropped asleep on the ground at the same time Tarnesh suddenly ran away in fear and she targeted him with her bow and he fell.
When we entered the Friendly Arm Inn, the first thing we did was order a glass of wine and sit down on a lazy chair in the corner where we could observe everything and rest from the scare of first a group of warriors and then a mage trying to kill me. Of course, we were hungry as well. Imoen went to the bar, ordered a meal and said: “look what I've got”. First, she showed me a sword of a size befitting her posture, then she pulled a ring out of her pocket (*): “I did some scouting while you slept and saw something glistening beneath a tree, look how pretty it is! You may have it”. And then, with a more serious tone, she took the letter and we started reading.
By Oghma, what a load of words with hardly anything being said. There's danger, someone's planning something, it's safer to be a 'moving target' than stay put at Candlekeep. But what is the plan? Who is after me? And the bugger who wrote Gorion doesn't even spell his name. I so much hate it when people don't speak plain! Sorry, my diary, I started swearing out of frustration. But it doesn't help me much. And I don't feel like being a target at all, least of all a moving one. How I wish I was sitting behind a reading desk in the study rooms at Candlekeep. Only one thing the letter is plain about, the names of the friends of Gorion, the names he already told me: Khalid and Jaheira. After I finish my plate and finish writing this, I'll try and guess whom of all these people in the room are Gorion's friends. The attacks have made me weary though. Till later.
(*) the sword was bought from Bentley Mirrorshade, the ring found when I had Imoen walk away from the sleeping Deirdre out of playfulness/restlessness/carelessness to beyond the gates and then I decided to put some metagaming into it by hovering the cursor at places Imoen's eye might wander and see something shimmering, without actually seeking something she sure wouldn't know is there.
I hope you feel better soon.
Dear diary,
I found Khalid and Jaheira, not straight away as they were sitting in a quiet corner just like me and I overlooked them. At first I went upstairs looking and got very happy at meeting a gnome woman like me! We talked a lot, well she talked a lot while I was all inquisitive asking questions about what life is like, living like a gnome on the Swordcoast. She lives in a small house of Beregost but fled her home as it was overrun by a spider-infection. I've promised I'd help her out. She's called Landrin by the way and I like her a lot.
I hope I'll meet more gnomes on my travels, I'm so excited to see another of my kin. It's been years now since I saw one. Occasionely a gnome visits Candlekeep to study there for a few months. The last time was an old (back then, in my eyes) green-skinned gnome called Altorban (*) who wasn't very talkative but I watched him for hours on ends as he was kind of an alchemist and besides studying tomes, he had these glasses and tubes doing experiments – to the dislike of the monks – but I digress.
I found Khalid and Jaheira as I said and they were not bad. I felt kinda shy when they said Gorion told them how fond he was of me. She's a bit of a bossy type while he seems as shy as I (often) am, stuttering and all, but by Oghma, they're warriors and I can feel safe, knowing they're there up front, wielding a club and a sword and stout armour. Well not stout armour straight away. Jaheira said she would be glad to help me out, but she could use my help as well. Me? Asked for help? Oh my!
Thing is, they were robbed recently. Not like losing a fight, but robbed while they slept at the inn. Feeling safe, they were in a real deep sleep after their previous adventures and only in the morning found out they only had one suit of metal armour left, only one sword and a quarterstaff. Jaheira had a magic club that was lost, her special suit of armour was lost, she only had the leather undercoat left, Khalid's bow was nowhere to be found. And the bag in which Jaheira kept her magic sling and bullets was also lost. In short, they did want to help, but I had to help equipping them first.
Next, we'll be off to a town called Naskhel, which I from the geography classes know to be the northernmost town of the country of Amn. But I'm off to sleep now, I'm very tired. Even though we're in an inn, we agreed to keep watch on at a time, all four of us. Not only were Khalid and Jaheira robbed of all their good gear, there's a lot of talks of bandits going after anything that's iron. But I'll worry about bandits in the morning. I took my turn to watch first, so I could take some time writing this and now it's time to wake Khalid as it's his turn now and I can hop into bed. Good night!
(*) Altorban is another character I created earlier for an überly modded install of Tutu, that I didn't finish (Dark Side of the Swordcoast and possibly other mods put too many overpowered items in that campaign) and I thought about using him for this diaresque walkthrough, but decided on Deirdre Bookworm as she has a more interesting personality - I think - than the grumpy Altorban
- just some quick notes, the light ain't very good now – by the fire – almost in Beregost – boy pointed to robbed caravan – took a look – people ghastly murdered, cut down by bandits – Jaheira wanted to mete out justice on them – found them but nearly got killed again – found some spells b.t.w. when fighting hobgoblins near inn, some came in handy – I blinded the leader after she kept shooting at us besides being hit by my spooking spell – Jaheira and I almost died (*) – she bandaged us when taking rest – Imoen did the cooking, ruined a frying pan - gonna sleep now – tomorrow Beregost
(*) In fact, Deirdre and Jaheira died a lot and I kept reloading until I won the fight - the point of this thread is experiencing the tale through the eyes of a roleplayed character, it's not a no-reload game and I avoid meta-gaming. If I meta-game, I avoid this bandit group at the robbed out caravan until I'm level 3 and then make mincemeat of them, but from a character point of view, it doesn't make sense seeing a robbed out caravan with bodies and not seeking out the culprits straight away but expecting them to still be hanging around weeks later after the party gets to level 3
Dear Diary,
I'm at Beregost now, at a table in the Burning Wizard together with Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid and Tiax, another gnome I met here in Beregost. He's a bit strange, rambling about wanting to dominate the world and addressing the rest of us as slaves, but he seems to be al right. I guess. But you can't always trust people. We ran into this evil man called Garrick, who hired us as some thugs were bothering his mistress, a Thespian performing theatre plays in Feldepost's inn that got bothered by Feldepost thugs, so he said, for not performing there any more. But when those 'thugs' arrived, they did so with gems to give that she had asked for – didn't sound like thugs and when I hesitated, she attacked me.
She was a mighty caster, had some kind of stony skin spell on her, but after Jaheira uttered some doom words on her, I was able to spook her and thus we managed to strike her with arrows while she was running and at last she died. It doesn't sound like a brave thing to do, but I am not a brave girl. Garrick just stood there, but I left him standing, I dared not talk to him any more, I was afraid of another battle like against Silke. I really don't know who to trust in this world and whom not to lend trust to.
Yesterday, when we arrived in Beregost, I was very weary of a woman in mage robes as I had been attacked by another mage before. But this one seemed as scared as I. There were men after her, bandit mages, because of her special 'wild' powers as they called. But I daren't step up to help her, I was frightened of those red robed wizards and the thugs they had with them, but I got involved in the fight anyway, as the red-robed wizards attacked me as well. I survived, but it didn't end well for that woman. Neera, she's called, the name was engraved on her staff, some magic thing only usable by her. I did take her robe though, feeling bad about taking something from someone dead, but at the same time, I don't want to end up dead myself and having the magic of the robe protect me might help staying alive a while longer.
Anyway, apparently that Neera was someone I could possibly trust. It's so hard to make out what's right and wrong. Who is trustful and who is not? We'll see what the morning brings. The five of us, those two half-elves, Imoen and my fellow gnome Tiax will head back north first to bring Landrin her stuff, as we've managed to kill the spiders building nests in her house and then we head back south for Naskhel.
Well, Tiax couldn't be trusted! He asked me when we would go spill some blood to obtain world domination. I got so mad! I told him to leave and almost wanted to attack him. The only thing that held me back, is the sense that his blood-thirst is only an effect of his madness. But when he spoke about wanting to spread terror - urgh - I almost feel bad for not striking him down - what harm might he really be up to now he's on the loose somewhere on the Swordcoast, running wild with blood-lust?
He's a disgrace to our noble gnome race, he is!
Dear diary,
Tiax was not the only strange person I have met on my travels since I left Candlekeep in a hurry almost a week ago. There was a woman wielding a big sword who wanted to challenge our best warrior to a duel. And she only would except dueling with a male, so that would mean Khalid. But I didn't think it a very good idea to risks Khalid's life and limb not for a good purpose like ridding the roads of bandits, but just for sports, dangerous sports. No thanks, I said and she called us a coward and left. Pfft, coward, serendipitous I would say, trying to not get into unnecessary fights. Like when we went on a bandit search and met an ogre. I got scared, scared! Not without reason, as he smashed me real hard with his mace when I tried running away from him, while all of the rest tried pelting him from a distance until he fell. Toe-to-toe with an ogre, maybe we'll be able to do it someday, but not now.
Other strange encounters: a hermit that had very strange tales, he said my aura was so volatile, it's hard to look at and I'm at odds with myself. Hrmph. More at odds with this odd world around me I'd say. He said my type usually finds a violent end, but he could not see my future. As if anyone can? And finally there was this noble from Waterdeep who dreamed about visiting Neverwinter and was more preoccupied with clothes than anything else. Well, at least he complimented me with my attire instead of insulting me with a 'volatile aura'.
But the fun thing is, here I'm sitting again by a campfire and half of the past six nights were by campfires instead of sleeping in an inn, and I'm actually beginning to enjoy travelling. And tomorrow we'll arrive in Nashkel, were I hope answers will be found, to the bandit plague, the brittle iron and perhaps I can find a clue as to why I get attacked. I'm weary of being attacked again though and I'm especially scared at crowded places. Which is strange, really, as the attack where Gorion was – killed – occurred in a lonely forest. But I've always felt unease among people, except for with Imoen – who is an orphan like me, maybe that's why.
This morning we arrived in Nashkel, as I said, I am weary among people and asked Jaheira to take caution, stepping into the inn of Nashkel, asking for directions. Yet again an assassin was after my life, I felt like I died from some unholy blights, but it turned out my spook worked yet again and my fears didn't come true, I still lived (*). I stepped up to the body and found a bounty notice for 680 gp on my head! I showed it to the group. 'Hey, you're price went up!' said Imoen. 'What do you mean?' I asked. “Eh, well', said Imoen 'when we got attacked near the Friendly Arm Inn by the wizard who put you to sleep, I found a bounty notice for 200 gp on his body'. 'Why didn't you tell me?' I wanted to know. Imoen said she didn't want to scare me. But scaring it is, with bounty hunters showing up wherever I go with no-one but our own group knowing where we're going, it must mean there's bounty hunters all around. Those that want me dead – or he - or she – have spread bounty notices all over – either that, or they have some means of scrying me.
But not only were there more assassins, but strange encounters to. In the town of Naskhel, there was a big fellow that talked to a rodent, who seemed intent on rescuing someone called Dynaheir, but I won't believe a tale from someone talking to a hamster and when I told him to go away, he attacked me, the dangerous lunatic (**). Not that all lunatics are dangerous, mind. I met another at the carnival who's very narcissistic and rude, but hey, he's a gnome – and he can cast a lot of spells, well, more than I can anyway. He knows how to spook and heal. Quayle, he's called and although he's a weird one, I think his skills might help. I only know how to spook, though I'm quite effective at it.
I also got to know a warrior priestess who can heal, by meeting yet another madman, who asked the ludicrous sum of 500 gp for a magic scroll to release a woman that got petrified from her imprisonment, but Jaheira did a great thing. She got really mad at the salesman, whacked him on the head with her fist and threatened to do so with her club if he wouldn't give her the scroll. And so he did, out of love for his cranium. But with me, Khalid and Imoen with their bows, Jaheira, Branwen and Quayle with their healing skills, the group got so big, I couldn't control very well what everyone is doing. Or Jaheira can't control, I'm not really sure who's in charge here. But commands and warning shouts get lost in the din if you're with seven and I thought I should boot someone, but that thinking took me some time, would I rather miss out on a healing warrior or a healing wizard. But me being the only with a spellbook in the group, I opted for Quayle to stay, but if I change my mind, Branwen (the warrior priestess) will be waiting at the Friendly Arm Inn she said.
(*) after 3 reloads
(**) playing the game from the character's point of view can lead to wholly different decisions, it feels like playing game anew. One example is, Deirdre had trouble finding the Carnival - seeing a sign saying Carnival - on the map - but not knowing exactly wear, she got one-shotted by a kobold commando I avoid if meta-gaming. Another example is killing Minsc! I either take him or let him standing and Deirdre did look for a warrior for the group, but seeing this man talking to his hamster doesn't make her trust him and she tells him so, resulting in Minsc assaulting her. So the group has to make do without the most effective melee damage-dealer for a good party.
The increased encounters with kobold archers, and the placement of the robbers who took Entar Silvershield's caravan, including that nasty bandit commander, are things I don't like about the NPC Project. I sometimes avoid installing it just so I can avoid those very difficult early encounters that were not there in the unmodded game.
I met a boy in the wilderness, who said he was spying on Basillus and his 'spooks'. I heard about this Basillus earlier in the town of Beregost, he's a madman who's killed his family and there's a price on his head. And to succeed in surviving in this world outside of the safety of Candlekeep, I not only need travelling companions, but they got to be fitted with good gear. So I decided to go after the bounty. Imoen said she got better at sneaking around, so I'll have her try and scout. And indeed she did, I saw her disappear in broad daylight! So far, we haven't seen any sign of Basillus however, but did ran into some more hobgoblin bandits.
(lunchbreak and time to write while Jaheira gathers some wild berries and roots for a stew)
Imoen did spot Basillus, but he was surrounded by a whole dozen undead, skeletons, zombies and seeing how quickly we get close to defeat in battling even small groups of hobgoblins, we skip the bounty for now. He's seem to have made his home there, in a copse with standing stones, so we might return there later.
A funny thing that happened, we ran into yet another madman, or so I thought, who heard a chicken talking. Imoen did believe him however and wanted to go looking for that chicken and when we did find the chicken, it spoke indeed! His name is Melicamp and he ventured into chickenhood by a spell that went wrong. And although his master, the mage Thalanthyr was not very pleased with his apprentice, he did help getting him back into human form.
Dear diary, I'm confused. And, well, eh, damn! I don't know what to write. Ras..
It sounds like Rasaad is someone your character needs for encouragement, and spiritual inspiration, so if I were you, I'd take him into my party and try to romance him, as a female character.
There will be, of course, the problem that Rasaad will be just this side of totally useless dead weight throughout BG1. (Why, oh why, did Beamdog choose a monk and a wild mage for their good and neutral new characters? I don't think I'll ever understand that choice.) But, given your vast experience with playing the game, you can probably compensate for the weakness in combat of the party characters that your sensitive, self-deprecating, uncertain female gnome is drawn to.
Honestly, I think I'm a little like her, too, and I would be drawn to Rasaad, as she is. Although, I also am drawn to larger-than-life personalities, so I would have found Minsc's hamster amusing and attractive, and I would have agreed to help him and follow him on his quest without hesitation.
You know, I almost always wind up taking Jaheira and Minsc, because I really want to have the same cast of characters with me all the way through the trilogy, and those two plus Imoen are the only ones you can do that with, or were the only ones. It just occurred to me that Neera and Rasaad can now serve the same function, that is, companions from beginning to end of the trilogy. I'll have to think about that.
(Dorn is not a candidate for me to ever play with. Sadistic, evil to the core, bloodthirsty, and a total psychopath? No thank you! At least, with the additions of Dorn, Baeloth, and Hexxat, there is finally a core full-trilogy evil party for people who swing that way. It's almost as though Beamdog was preferring and catering to evil players with every new character except Rasaad.)
Anyhoo, please keep playing your run and giving us these interesting diary entries.
What I realize just now, I forgot to let Deirdre write about how Rasaad joins the party. Upon meeting him in Nashkel, Deirdre was immediately enthralled by his talks about the moongoddess Selûne bringing light into a dark world, truth and justice. Just what Deirdre craves for, but apparently I only wrote it up in my thoughts as I was playing. I'll have to correct that.
As for dead weight, my first BG:EE character had Rasaad in the party for some of the time and at the end Rasaad was good for second place in party kills, after Minsc. Though the number are a bit off, Minsc good for 47% of kills, Rasaad for 13%. It'll be a hard time, not having Minsc and still playing with Sword Coast Stratagems, while roleplaying the choices in game and not meta-gaming also makes the game harder. I reckon there's a chance this playthrough will stop for becoming too hard.
Not taking Minsc was a real role-playing decision. From the get-go (talking to Puffguts) Deirdre has had a problem with people not talking straight, like being asked for a 10.000 gp book when Winthrop really had the intention to sell to her anyway. I tend to think of Deirdre as being mildly autistic in that respect, being able to only take the literal meaning of words. She's modelled on real-life experiences in that regard, though my writing could be off, as my experience with autism is (mostly) second- and third-person-perspective (*). But this tendency of her developed into an aversion to 'madness' after bad experiences with Tiax and Quayle (although she tolerates the latter) and when she met a big guy talking to a hamster Deirdre thought 'oh no not again' and answered likewise.
I always take the most likely in-character replies and that doesn't always result in the best outcome. Like when talking to Basillus, I went 'hey, this is going well, Deirdre picks the right replies' until in the final step of the dialogue tree, Deirdre asked for Basillus to atone. Oops, twelve undead, most of them with crossbows on a very vulnerable party (Rasaad, Deirdre and Quayle especially). Reload and stray away from Basillus!
P.S.: this decision of hers to affront Minsc does on the plus side give me the experience of what the duo Khalid and Jaheira will be like on the front of a good-aligned party, as most of my playthroughs they get dumped before my party becomes final, with Minsc, Ajantis, Coran and Kivan being my most favourite warriors in my (almost always good-aligned) parties and Finch and Branwen my most favourite divine casters (though that might still happen, Deirdre will like Finch a lot, she's excellent material for a best friend role besides Imoen, but roleplaying instead of meta-gaming she has until now missed out on meeting Finch, even in Candlekeep).
(*off-topic:) though after talking with my psychiatrist about steps that will be taken for a re-diagnosis, I'm wondering if some autistic tendencies in myself will be part of the outcome. She pointed me to some tendencies that made her think about 'another diagnosis' (she didn't get more explicit), like the tendency to keep talking without noticing if it becomes too much talk for the other, wanting to know exactly how things are and getting annoyed if I don't find the answer - like 'what's the meaning of life?', 'why am I different from other people and what is the exact explanation?' and most of all 'to what question is 42 the answer?'
Oh, my mind is so muddled, I completely forgot to tell you about how we met Rasaad. When we arrived in Nashkel, there was a man in some sort of short brown robes with leggings teaching fighting skills, but when one of the farmers standing about loud-mouthedly wanted the man to demonstrate his skills in a fisticuffs, he refused, saying how his fighting is just a way to bring balance between body, soul and mind and only used for real in the defence of justice. Such an admirable stance!
I wanted to know more about him and he told me his name is Rasaad and he is a member of the Order of the Sun Soul. They're descendants from the Brotherhood of the Sun, that worshipped the Sun God Amaunator in the days of ancient Netheril and when he disappeared, part of his power went to the moongoddess Selune that is worshipped by his Order.
Selune fights darkness, by inspiring her followers to bring light to those in need and offer truth in the face of lies in compassion in the face of hatred. My heart felt warmed by those uplifting thoughts and I asked him to join us. On our travels, he often paused to teach me more about Selune and even though he often falls in battle and I have to warn him not to take the fight up front to the enemy, I very much like to have him around.
He warms my heart with his speeches and if in battle I bet his wounds before Quayle or Jaheira are ready to come over and cast a healing spell over him, I feel all soft, that gentle man so vulnerable and yet his heart so strong.
And that muddles my thought. Damn, I feel all mushy inside. Time to quit thinking about Rasaad and go study my spells for the next day!
BTW, I'm so muddled I even forgot to mention the date. It's the 15th of Mirtul now. A fortnight since I started of my journey.
So much has happened since that brutal murder. At least I've a party of people around me and were on our way to develop some battle skills, though I still shudder to think of confronting the demons that are said to haunt the mines in Nashkel that we're supposed to investigate. But Jaheira and Khalid got better at fighting, I myself have learned some more spells, Imoen got quite the sneaker, Rasaad is still a vulnerable man but I'll be on the lookout for things that might protect him and Quayle has learned some protective chanting that might help us in our future battles and he bluffed about being able to silence a mage if we meet one. So yes, we're getting somewhere.
Dear diary,
In this region the roads are patrolled by the Flaming Fist but they're not very efficient at what they do. It seems more bandits where slain by me and my party than by the Flaming Fist. Worse, they sometimes accuse the wrong people. A week ago, we were accused of being bandits and this night we met a Flaming Fist officer wanting to arrest and kill a drow elf woman for reason of being a drow. It's what you do wrong, not what you are, that condemns you, so I couldn't agree to that. I tried argueing with the officer but he pulled his sword and it ended up in a fight where we killed him! Now I feel bad about that. The drow woman introduced herself as Viconia and offered to join the party, but the affair left a sour taste in my mouth and I declined. We did take the armour off the Flaming Fist before burying his body though as we're in desperate need for better protective gear, but of course, seeing Jaheira in that plate mail only enhances the sour taste (*).
There's others in need of protection too, but that's not as easy as donning plate. I'm talking about Quayle, who's faith allows him armour but it prevents him spellcasting. I gave him a small shield even though with one hand hindered there's a small chance of his spells going wrong. Still he's the most vulnerable of the group and gets targeted my enemy archers such as kobold commando's far too often to be healthy. Mostly he's clever enough to get into just enough range to cast his spells, such as commanding enemies to lie down or spook them, then run away till he's out of range. Doesn't sound very brave, but it's a sound strategy and neither am I very brave, so who am I to blame?
- time for dinner, Imoen is cooking, no chance to ruin a frying pan this time, as she's roasting a hare that Khalid shot on stick above the fire – I just hope it doesn't go black, pink suits her better – I better tell her it's ready, I'll write again after dinner -
Hello diary, here I am again,
Writing about armour made me very worried about Rasaad, who likes to close in on enemies wielding a curved sword he calls a Ninja-to but the poor man gets hit so often. Even though he tries to skirt around to the enemies side while Jaheira takes them from the front the enemies often turn to face him leading to ghastly wounds. He just plain refuses to wear any armour protection. I went to sit beside him when dinner was finished and told him about my worries. “Protection comes from mind and body being in harmony” he said, “we should rely on ourselves, not on worldy things to save us from harm”. “But you must use something to protect you”, I replied. “I wish I could use my magic to keep you safe”. Then I thought about a ring I had found close to the Lion's Way, that I had put on for it's magic protection. “Here, have this”, I said – and blushed - “It will help to keep you safe” and took the ring from my finger but when I tried putting it on his, my hand started trembling. I felt really shy, touching those lovely long fingers. Luckily, he didn't seem to mind. “Why, that's very generous of you, it warms my heart to know you care”. I hid my blush with my hands and ran away “Oh, I forgot, I've got to memorize some spells” I said and ran off to the other side of the fire, where I couldn't concentrate on my spells – of course – but started writing this. I see him sitting on the other side of the fire, he put the ring on his finger and is toying it kind of absent-mindedly. I just hope it will keep him safe.
(*) Fighter-druids being able to wear full plate is a feature of my install, though I'm not sure what mod made that possible. Just so, Quayle getting a 5% chance of miscasting arcane magic is the workings of BG2Tweaks, it would allow him to cast arcane magic with studded leather or even heavier types of armour, but with an ever increasing chance of miscasting.
Oh my dear diary, the ring didn't keep Rasaad safe! We were fighting a band of ogres and did really well by keeping our distance, I felt better about being able to take them on, which I wouldn't have believed possible a week ago. There was quit a lot of them, three ogres of different kinds, 2 hobgoblins with poisoned arrows, a couple of those same monsters that slew the messenger that was to bring a letter from Roe to Mirianne and we were keeping a safe distance while pelting them with stones, Khalid and Imoen shooting arrows and me and Quayle using our spells to blind and spook a few of them so not all would go after us at the same time and then I heard a terrible scream of pain of anguish. It was Rasaad's voice that screamed out but then felt completely silent. Time seemed to stop. I was very accurately aware of the foes that were still alive while we were doing our best to kill the last one of them and at the same time everything seemed to happen in a blur.
And then the horror as I couldn't find Rasaad. There were ogre bodies, arrows, pieces of lost weaponry strewn all over the battlefield, but I couldn't find Rasaad. I went into all the bushes, finding dead hobgoblins who had hidden there while they shot at us but got killed by our arrows. Finally I found Rasaad's body next to dead hobgoblin, the hobgoblin with a slash across it's face but with the hobgoblins knife buried in Rasaad's belly. I sank down beside him, took him in my arms and wept for a long time. I even yelled angrily when Jaheira came close. It was Imoen who managed to calm me by putting a hand on my shoulder “We could raise him at a temple you know” she said. My weeping became sobbing and then I fell quiet and stood back, to let Jaheira dress the wounds of Rasaad's body. Khalid took the bandaged to carry Rasaad on his back, we divided his gear and trodded to the Temple of the Morning Lord in Nashkel.
When we got to the temple I was so relieved when they raised him after we made a donation. Rasaad's wounds were still grave, but we took him into town and got a room in the Burning Wizard. Jaheira changed the dressings, I gave him some water to drink and then we all went sleeping, very tired. Not that I really slept, I dozed off once every while but then I'd wake in horror and went over to Rasaad's bed to check if he's still all right. When we awoke in the morning Jaheira started casting healing spells on him and he slowly recovered.
We stayed for another night at the Burning Wizard and then went back too what we were doing – clearing the roads of bandits. Our real goal was to find out what's haunting the Nashkel mines, but I am very worried about the demons that are down there (the farmers of Nashkel told so). And while Jaheira doesn't believe the story of demons, she agreed we should put some time into learning to function as a group and practice our combat skills by fighting bandits, be they human, hobgoblin or half-ogre.
Fighter-druids have always been able to wear plate armor in the base game, so that's not a mod. There's a mod called Divine Remix that removes Jaheira's ability to wear anything better than leather, though, which kind of ruins her usefulness as a tank, and is one reason I don't use that mod.
I still got to write the story about how Deirdre entered the Nashkel mines, but now I am stuck trying to think of a way to win the battle against the kobold shaman and chieftain - especially the chieftain is deadly, as his arrows deal massive poison damage. The usual way to deal with this encounter is buff up with chant and bless to get some better die-rolls and try disabling the chieftain and shaman with disrupting spells. So the battle is won by preparing for it. But with Imoen scouting ahead, all she sees from a distance is a group of kobolds that's tiny compared to the groups the party dealt with earlier, so there's no roleplaying reason to prep. There's only a meta-gaming reason to prep, as only with meta-gaming, you know what the party is up against.
Swordcoast Stratagems difficulty and not meta-gaming is a deadly mix and I feel kind of stuck, trying to figure out how to role-play my party into buffing as heavy as they can for this
Throw it and run, desperate measures when you hear the chanting from the shaman?
The only way I can think of to deal with a Sleep-casting shaman is to know he's there, exactly where he is, and to throw an AoE into the spot, like @UnderstandMouseMagic said. If he gets that Sleep off, it's a TPK, unless you hold off on the mines until you're high enough level to be immune.
You're probably going to run into similar problems with Web-spell casting spiders.
Honestly, I just find SCS to be a huge headache, so I don't use it, but to each their own.
Good luck, I hope you manage to solve it. I think @Blackraven has done some roleplayed SCS, so maybe he could give some advice here.
- a proactive approach, i.e. do a lot of pre-buffing, or
- a reactive approach, i.e. run into danger pretty much unprepared (ignoring your metagame knowledge) and respond with potions and items to whatever the game throws at you.
The former is generally a lot more metagamey, unless you have a list of standard pre-buffs that you don't deviate from. But even then you'll probably end up pre-buffing at those moments your metagame knowledge tells you you need to. Obliging yourself to scout enemies first might add some realism there. Another thing is that the proactive approach pretty much forces one to roleplay a semi-paranoid, extremely cautious persona. It can be boring to always roleplay such a character.
I generally prefer the latter approach, and I must say it's quite feasible for certain classes. Berserkers and Barbarians are examples. My Thieves tend to operate this way. They will scout enemies, maybe buff lightly with potions, but otherwise rely on hit and fade tactics and an ample stock of defensive items and potions to deal with spells cast at them.
For your Illusionist the proactive approach makes more sense. Gnomes are generally elusive beings, and Deirdre (being a low level Mage, low STR, and hunted) has all the reason to be no exception. Illusion spells are actually very suitable for an evasive character (compared to e.g. Invocation or Necromancers).