Baldur's Gate: The Zero Reload Saga

One of the thugs we just killed had a scroll of Haste on him. Hot diggity.

After scribing this (successfully this time) and a few other scrolls, Jan levels up in Illusionist, earning himself 1 extra level 1-2 spell and two extra level 3-4 spells. Nice. That gives us room for one Greater Malison and one Improved Invisibility, on top of Stoneskin.

When we're done fiddling with our spellbooks, we head on down and hand this guy (who, incidentally, only weighs 50 pounds; that must be one hell of a poison) to the man standing in front of the orange building, as instructed.

But here's where he screwed up. There are two orange buildings in the Docks district. One of them is the Harper compound, or "Galvarey's Estate", which is the one he wanted to be taken to.

The other is the Shadow Thief guildhall.

Now, Mr. Renfeld, let's assume that we're "in-character" here and we don't have the ability to psychically determine everyone's name by letting our finger hover over them for a few seconds. What if we'd chosen the wrong building? Here's how it would have happened:

"Excuse me, I'm looking for someone. This guy's been poisoned and he asked me to take him to an orange building in the Docks district. Are you Rylock?"

"Why yes. Yes I am. Thank you for bringing him here. I'll take good care of him."

And then you would have been taken inside, stripped of all your possessions, trussed up in a sack and dumped into the ocean to die.

So, would it have killed you to be a little more specific? No. I think you'll find that the exact opposite is true.

We were one step away from this actually happening the first time I played the game, too, because I did choose the wrong building, and then I ended up wandering all over the guildhall looking for this "Rylock" person like an idiot, before I realised that there was another orange building that I could go to. You're lucky that none of the Shadow Thieves' dialogue takes you into account, you son of a bitch.

Anyway, with that out of the way, Xzar appears from out of nowhere, hence the title of this post.

The reason "Friend" is in quotes is that I didn't actually play through the first game as Vespero, so I can't actually say if he ever travelled with Xzar or not. He probably didn't, though. Xzar is OK, but he's part of a package deal with Montaron, who isn't OK. If you're playing a power game then you can maybe get away with having one average/mediocre NPC, but not two.

Plus I don't like either of them.

Incidentally, I also don't remember Xzar being as crotchety and condescending as he is here. In the first game he was a complete lunatic and barely coherent at the best of times, but in a strange kind of way, he was also fairly mellow. In this game he's basically just a watered-down version of Edwin. What happened?

In any event, it turns out that Montaron has been taken captive by the Harpers we just spoke to, and Xzar wants us to go and get him back. Never mind how he knows they're Harpers or how he knows we were talking to them. He's a non-party NPC, which means he gets to "just know" whatever he damn well pleases.

We agree to find him, which, for some reason, Jaheira doesn't seem to mind. And she really should.

More D&D history: The Zhentarim are a criminal organization that are involved in all kinds of eeeeevil doings. This puts them at serious odds with the Harpers, who, despite their sometimes questionable methods, are basically concerned with doing the right thing and acting as a force of good in the world.

Xzar is with the Zhentarim. Jaheira is with the Harpers. You are being asked to perform a task that will aid the Zhentarim and hinder the Harpers. All she has to say about this is "Be careful", and then she happily aids you in committing an act that will compromise the security of her allies.

Loyalty is a fine thing.

It's getting late and I'm getting tired, so that's going to be all for tonight. Tomorrow we finish what we attempted to start, and the mystery of why I intend to go to the Crooked Crane will finally be solved.

This is Lorph Halys, and you've been reading Baldur's Gate: The Zero Reload Saga. Thank you, and goodnight.