Baldur's Gate: The Zero Reload Saga

And we’re back.

The transition from forum to blog went about as smoothly as I could have hoped, though I suspect there are still a few references to “the thread” and other such inconsistencies that I might have failed to spot when I was reviewing my posts. I am sure, however, that you are very clever and won’t let such little errors confuse you.

Quick Recap: A zombie wants to get his mack on with his wife one last time, so we’re off to try and find her like the charitable XP hunters we are. Our next stop is Waukeen’s Promenade.

On our way there, though, we encounter some trouble. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen; Vespero has just had his very first ambush. Aren’t you proud of him?

The problem with these battles is that you never have any opportunity to prepare. The enemies generally aren’t that tough, but they always seem to end up positioned dangerously close to your squishiest party members when the battle starts.

Because of this, the fighters will almost invariably go for your vulnerable mages and thieves. No matter how furiously you click, of course, they’ll never bother to pay any attention to, say, a screaming, axe-wielding dwarf that is actually scoring hits on them repeatedly, so you’re basically forced to pause every second to run your fragile NPCs in circles, so that they stay out of reach of their assailants.

We take a bit of a chance here and have Vespero start casting Summon Monster I right away. The fruits of his efforts turn out to be two Kobold Commandos and a Worg, which is actually a lot more than I was hoping for; all I really wanted was something to take the focus off the party members for a while so that we could dispatch the spellcasters without impediment. But hey, if my conjured monsters can actually put up a decent fight, so much the better.















With Korgan tying up the melee fighter, the kobolds plunking away at the mage and the worg and Jaheira going toe-to-toe with the archers, this battle went down with only one hitch; we weren’t able to finish off the mage before she Lightning Bolted Korgan. Thankfully, though, a quick Magic Missile from Vespero ensured that she didn’t cause any further trouble.

By the time the cleric had finished buffing himself, everyone else was dead. We congratulated him heartily on his performance at fulfilling the “support” role, and rewarded him with his giblety demise.

And guess what? The Cowled Wizards don’t care about me casting spells out here either. At this point, though, does that really surprise anyone?