Day 5, Hour 20: Under New Management

Posted by Lorph Halys at 05:38

Now that we’ve got the key, the first thing we do (because if I leave it until later then I always forget) is release the two children from the cells adjacent to Hendak’s, adding to the ever-growing list of abused kids in this game that we’ve had to help.

Only once these two are freed do we open Pandora’s Box and set Hendak and the other gladiators free. Somehow all the spoiled nobles in the adjoining room immediately realise what has happened and flee the building, robbing us of the satisfaction of spilling the contents of their bloated guts. That’s a terrible shame, because I really want one of those hats.

It says a lot about the overall competence of the Copper Coronet guards that they can be taken down by an unarmed, downtrodden, weary and probably malnourished ex-slave. Not that we allow that to happen here, of course; we’re jumping in and killing them for the experience.

Yes, going to the trouble of killing the guards ourselves for the 14 experience points that they yield. I really am that petty.

One of them has a +1 halberd on him. Strange. I don’t remember ever seeing them drop one of those before. Of course, this is far preferable to a smattering of gold coins or a low-value gem, so I’m certainly not going to complain.

Eventually, the chaos settles and we are left with but two; Hendak and Lehtinan. Since we’re scraping up all the XP we can get our hands on here, we dive into the fray and attack Lehtinan ourselves…and Hendak turns hostile.

What the fzark.

Is that supposed to happen? It’s been a few years since I last tried it, but I’m fairly sure I’ve killed Lehtinan myself before and it didn’t cause any adverse effects. Perhaps Hendak was just miffed because he wanted to be the one to do it, which would be understandable, but he did say “Assist me if you vish” when we freed him, so screw it. That’s probably a bug. Reload.

Going through this AGAIN, (I saved just before opening the door, so we didn’t really lose any progress) we stand back and let Hendak do his own thing this time, the temperamental bitch. Everything goes as it should and Lehtinan falls.

Hendak then declares that, as payment for his long years of slavery, he intends to lay claim to the inn.

…OK, fair enough from a moral standpoint, but legally I’m not convinced that this would fly. What exactly are you going to say when the guards start making inquiries? “Oh, vell, uh, I vas beink kept as a slave here for a vhile so I thought it might be OK eef I take zee inn for zee payment. Ja.”

Mind you, if the guards in the city are anything like the ones that were in here, they’d probably just accept this as the truth without further question and leave it at that.

Imagine if you tried something like that today. Imagine if someone kidnapped you and, after you were rescued and the culprit arrested, you went over to their house, declared it yours and moved in. You wouldn’t even get past the front doorstep before you had a lawsuit shoved up your ass.



This is going to be my last update for tonight. Alas, I am but one man and I simply have not the endurance to keep this thing chugging along 24/7. Tune in next time, though, when we’ll be grabbing ourselves an annoying, talking sword and proving the ineptitude of the city watch by following an almost laughably incriminating trail of evidence to its painfully obvious conclusion and discovering just who’s been flaying hobos in the bridge district.

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

 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I took it upon myself to test if that was actually a bug (yes I made a new character just to test it)

I killed Lehtinan as he was fighting Hendak 3 times (reloading from before I even entered the copper coronet to be sure) in order to do so.

The first time, everything proceeded normally.

The second time however, Hendak went hostile (upon which he was transformed into meat chunks by Jan's girdle of the hill giant-powered backstab)

Finally, the third time, everything proceeded without error (though one of the guards smashed Aerie into meat chunks......but that doesn't really pertain to this).

I think it is safe to assume that is was a glitch

8 June 2008 at 00:42  

Anonymous said...

Well I'm currently playing catch-up having just realized you've avoided that dream problem. However I did feel compelled to comment about your not doing the bellicose twatbats quest as you referred to it.

Its too late now (zero reloads) but I do recall you saying you'd try to do all non-exclusive quests so technically reputation drop or no you should have encouraged them to go on a rampage.

8 June 2008 at 04:32  

Anonymous said...

Catchup Comment 2

In regards to the priests and blunt weapons question this is again a situation where I suspect gameplay limits affected changes in the original rules.

In the DnD pen and paper game (not necessarily others) clerics were prohibited by their holy vows from wielding any weapon other than blunt ones maces/clubs unless and this is important it was their gods personal weapon.

So a cleric of random god X might be limited solely (sp?) to maces but a cleric of a god who uses a longsword (has to be a personal weapon of significance not one they grabbed for one fight against another god) would also have the option of being proficient in longswords same for a god like Athena (patron goddess of hunters, has a major relation to her bow) would presumably be able to be proficient to a bow in addition to axes.

I'm not sure where the original concept came from but I think it had to do with swearing off weapons of war and violence in general which clubs presumably weren't unlike swords.

8 June 2008 at 05:17  

Lorph Halys said...

However I did feel compelled to comment about your not doing the bellicose twatbats quest as you referred to it.

Its too late now (zero reloads) but I do recall you saying you'd try to do all non-exclusive quests so technically reputation drop or no you should have encouraged them to go on a rampage.

It's not even really a quest, though. It's just a thing that happens. It's like that bit in the graveyard with the scared peasant and Uncle Lester; it's an interesting little diversion, but nothing actually comes of it.

I'm not sure where the original concept came from but I think it had to do with swearing off weapons of war and violence in general which clubs presumably weren't unlike swords.

Well, that makes sense with the good-aligned gods that don't actually enjoy violence, but the theory collapses somewhat when you consider gods like, say, Tempus. The god of battle. War. By extension, violence. Why would a god like that be opposed to his clerics using whatever weapons they damn well please?

11 June 2008 at 02:16  

NickH said...

I'm not sure where the original concept came from but I think it had to do with swearing off weapons of war and violence in general which clubs presumably weren't unlike swords.

It came from original D&D (not AD&D) where clerics were modelled on Christian (warrior) priests who were 'forbidden' from shedding blood and so used a mace rather than a sword to discomfort their enemies. For an example see Bishop Odo from the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 on the Bayeux Tapestry.

12 November 2012 at 11:51  

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