Baldur's Gate: The Zero Reload Saga

Here we come across an interesting little instance of idiocy. In the top right room here, the slavers have got a Maximum Security Chest; that is, one that’s both locked and trapped. Said chest contains fourteen gold coins and a minor magical scroll. Fair enough. However, right next to that, there are over three hundred gold coins, some magic arrows, a healing potion and another magical scroll, all of which are just lying on a table.

Do excuse my presumption, dear fellows, but I think it's distinctly possible that you might have got that backwards. Unless you just really like scrolls of Protection from Evil; but I don’t see how they would do you much good considering you’re the evil ones. Maybe slavery is just a dangerously competitive business.

Anyway. Before we fight the second group of slavers here, we have Jan cast "Invisibility 10’ Radius", rendering everyone in the party, as you might have guessed, invisible. By doing this, we can move our hard-hitters in close to the enemy wizards without being noticed, allowing us to murder the hell out of them before they can fire off a single spell. With them gone, the feeble fighters and archers are easily dealt with.

No particularly noteworthy loot from this battle; just a Cloak of Protection +1, which is going to Jan since Vespero already has a Ring +1.

When we return to the Coronet, Hendak demonstrates his telepathic talents by determining that we have wiped out the slavers before we even open our mouths, and rewards us with a nice sum of gold and “Kondar”, the bastard sword that acts as a +3 weapon against shape-shifters.

I cannot emphasise enough how useless this weapon is to us. Not only is nobody in the party proficient with bastard swords to begin with, but there are…what, maybe two shape-shifters in the entire game? That's a generous estimate, because I certainly can't think of any off the top of my head. Even then, by the time you come across them, you’ll probably have several weapons that are +3 against everything and have additional useful effects to boot.

Still, at least it’s worth a decent amount.

Even better, though, thanks to that sweet, sweet Quest XP, Vespero is now a level 9 mage. Only one more to go before he can regain his Kensai abilities. Oh god, it’s so close now. I can taste it. It tastes like awesome.

In other news, we just hit the 15000 gold mark, which means that both the Shadow Thieves and the vampires are now clamouring for our attention. We basically tell Valen to take a hike when she approaches us with her offer, though. We won’t be siding with the vampires, since Keldorn will run off in a huff if we do. Besides, storming the Shadow Thief stronghold is a friggin’ nightmare.

Immediately after that, though, we get approached by another shady, hooded woman who demands that we hand over all our money or die. Really, lady? Really? You want to try and mug all six of us with our armour and weapons equipped, ready and plainly visible?

OK. Your funeral.

Just kidding. You’re not getting a funeral. Your corpse is going to lie there and rot in the street, because THAT’S HOW WE ROLL IN AMN.

Where to next? I think we shall return to the Docks district to tangle with Xzar and those crazy Harpers for another hefty helping of easily obtained XP and some nifty magical gear. But that, loyal readers, is for another update.

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