Baldur's Gate: The Zero Reload Saga

“WAAAHHH HOW DARE YOU LEGITIMATELY CONVICT ME FOR A CRIME OF WHICH I AM ENTIRELY GUILTY.”

Baron Ployer in a nutshell.

Seems that Jaheira and the Harpers busted this man in the past for dealing with slaves, and now he’s slumming it with the peasant population of Athkatla. Rather than using what remains of his fortune to, I don’t know, start a business or keep himself supplied while he finds an actual job, he instead decided to commission a group of mercenary mages to place a curse of death upon Jaheira out of a petty desire for vengeance.

Chalk up another notch for the “Stupid Evil” crowd.

This quest is interesting in that it’s impossible to complete easily without making use of out-of-game knowledge. As you might expect, you have to hunt down Mr. Ployer to get the curse removed, and there are certain leads you can follow to that end, but ultimately, all you end up discovering is that he’s “somewhere in the Slums”, which isn’t particularly helpful.

Luckily for you, however, if you check your map, you’ll notice that his house is quite clearly marked. Otherwise you could well end up having to spend many tedious hours trying to turn up some kind of clue only to have Jaheira shrivel up like a sultana and die, undoing all your efforts. I don’t know how long that actually takes to happen, mind you, nor do I plan on finding out. Maybe if I ever do a "Many Reload Saga" we'll give it a shot.

So, the outcome of all this is that Jaheira wants us to go to the Copper Coronet in search of a merchant named Belgrade; which, incidentally, is also the name of the capital of Serbia. Isn’t that interesting?

Normally I wouldn’t bother with this part of the quest. After all, it serves no real purpose other than to keep Jaheira happy, and what has she done for us lately? You know, aside from aiding us with invaluable buffing spells, patching up everyone’s wounds and bravely holding the front lines of battle along with Korgan. Not a damn thing, that’s what.

However, in this particular case, we need to go and see Bernard anyway since he’s the only one in town that can properly dispose of Shazzellim, so we might as well drop it off with him now. Consider yourself lucky, druid.