Baldur's Gate: The Zero Reload Saga

Ah, bugrit. I forgot that coming here would trigger Keldorn’s side-quest. We’ll get that out of the way as soon as we’re done here, although why Keldorn would want to invite a rampaging psychopath like Vespero into his household and anywhere near his loved ones, particularly his two young daughters, is beyond me. I’m starting to think that he actually doesn’t like his family all that much and that the whole “Obligations as a paladin” thing is just a convenient excuse to avoid them. Perhaps if Vespero WERE to kill them all in a wild fit of bloodlust, Keldorn would be happy to say no more about it and let us continue on our way.

…well, OK. Having experimented with this in the past, I can confirm that this isn’t actually the case. Keldorn does immediately turn hostile if you attack anyone in his house, although the line he speaks when he does so doesn’t indicate any real distress on his part. It’s basically just “Well shit, now I have to kill you.” Interestingly, though, since you have full control of Keldorn right up until he actually leaves the party, it is entirely possible to have him stroll up and carve his own little daughter into deli meat, all whilst bellowing “For right and honor!”

As DELIGHTFULLY twisted as this is, however, we do actually want to use him throughout the game, so it is with great sorrow that we must allow this wonderful opportunity to pass us by. Therefore, it’s off to the council building to talk to Corneil, who, like every Cowled Wizard in the game, is completely unhelpful.

However, doing this prompts the sudden appearance of just the man we are looking for; the man in charge of the mages, simply known as Terrece. He informs us that he’d be willing to not come to Baron Ployer’s defence when we do manage to track him down, in exchange for a suitable fee. The wheels in Vespero’s head start a-turnin’, and as always, in just a few seconds, he is able to come up with the most elegant and practical solution available for the situation at hand.

Violence.

You see, Terrece, like Lehtinan, is one of those characters that you can strike dead in broad daylight without anyone caring. What we do, therefore, is quite simple. We one-up his offer and ask him to have his group turn on Ployer directly, which he accepts, (in exchange for a higher fee) then we immediately kill him and loot the corpse, allowing us not only to earn the extra XP from the sneaky dealings, but also the XP we’d get for killing Terrece had we fought him directly, the gold we paid him, AND the magical items he was carrying. Also, because the developers didn’t take into account that you might do this, he’ll still turn up at Ployer’s house alive and well to dispatch him without you having to lift a finger.

You really couldn’t ask for a better outcome. Having the chance to indulge in a brilliantly outrageous and amoral scheme like this almost takes the sting off not being able to make Keldorn butcher his family just because the anonymous voice in his head told him to.

Almost.