Baldur's Gate: The Zero Reload Saga

Before we go journeying into the cesspit of Athkatla, we’ve got one more thing to take care of in the promenade. We’re going to talk to Galoomp the bookkeeper.

Am I the only one who thinks that “Galoomp” is onomatopoeia for swallowing? Gulping something down? Real mature, Bioware. There’s another merchant standing next to him; why not call him "Patooie"?

Anyway, you may be wondering why we want to talk to Galoomp, seeing as how he’s just a standard scroll merchant and we already bought enough scrolls earlier on to leave us all but broke. The answer? We’ve got the Quest Pack installed, which means this guy’s got a problem that he has no intention of solving himself, and he has therefore decided to stand around and wait for some rag-tag assortment of “heroes” to come along and fix it for him.

In other words, he’s got a side-quest for us.

Galoomp seems to be miserable about something, so being the nosy adventurers we are, we ask him what’s up. He informs us that someone’s been stealing his scrolls, and as such it’s been hard for him to make ends meet…because, you know, it’s not as if the money he’d make off a level 1 scroll alone would be enough for a person to live comfortably on for years.

Speaking of scrolls, we’re going to buy a second scroll case from him. They can only hold about a dozen each, and we certainly won’t be scribing every single scroll we find, so we’ll need to make room to stash the more useful ones away should we end up in a pinch later on.

Back on the subject of the quest, though, Galoomp says that, should we manage to catch the thief, our reward will be whatever scrolls he may have on him. Gee, thanks a lot, Galoomp. What exactly makes you think that he hasn’t already used them all? Cheapskate.

Asking him whom he thinks might be responsible, he mentions a “right scruffy halfling” that he’s seen skulking around the north side of the Bridge District. This is, of course, exactly where we need to go and whom we need to apprehend, since we haven’t had any hints suggesting otherwise. Nothing like a good mystery.

As a final note before we part, he tells Vespero that he is a good soul.

Ahaha.

Onward to the slums.