Let me just show you the portrait I’m using again.
I have to give Amalas credit; he’s got some serious balls calling Vespero "dolly boy".
Into the ring we go. First of all we draw our Wand of Monster Summoning and aim it at the centre of the floor, directly between Amalas and Vespero.
And…wow. Five Gnoll Elites. I was kind of expecting to have to help whatever got conjured up by continuing to blast Amalas with more wands, but the snarling hyena men just get stuck right in and gib him without me having to lift a finger, thereby proving that I am a real man and a true hardass because I can summon other creatures to fight my battles for me.
Jaheira levels up from this, which she DOESN’T DESERVE. I’m the one who killed him, damn it. I should be levelling up.
Well…actually, the gnolls are the ones that killed him, but shut up. I made the gnolls.
One extra spell slot for levels 4 and 5, to which we’ll assign Defensive Harmony and…oh, let’s say Insect Plague.
With that out of the way, we can finally do what we came here to do; recruit Korgan. We saunter up and talk to him, and after being seated around his table, he tells us he’s going to…“Flail the bladder for a spell."
To this day, I still have no idea what the hell this is supposed to mean, but it sounds absolutely disgusting. You keep your bladder to yourself, you bearded little freak.
We agree to find his damn book, but of course we’re going to stall on this for as long as we can, because the undead in that crypt are pretty tough, and at this point in time, Vespero is not.
Going to rest for now to memorise my meagre spell selection, then it’s off to add Viconia to our sorry troupe.
Into the tavern we go, carefully avoiding the two thugs outside…and the three thugs inside. Normally I wouldn’t hesitate to show Amalas who the boss man is in these parts, but as a 5th-level mage with no spells memorised, I don’t think the battle would go too well for me right now. We’ll tear him a new one later.
That reminds me. I should really get some rest once I’m done here.
Unfortunately, to avoid the thugs, we’re going to have to take the long way around, which means bumping into Anomen. We lie through our teeth here by telling him that we’re courageous do-gooders, and then do a U-turn and speak the absolute truth when we tell him we do not want him to join us.
I don’t ever want Anomen to join me, ever again. But I have to complete his quest, so it’s going to have to happen at some point. Not now, though. I can’t handle him so soon after losing those scrolls.
We also get intercepted by Nalia and subject her to the same process. Yes, we’ll come and save your keep, but no we don’t want you with us right now. Jaheira approves.
Of course, we won’t actually be going to the keep for quite some time, since I don’t think we’re up to taking on trolls and umber hulks just yet. That, however, will not be a problem, since apparently all the hostiles overrunning the place are quite content to sit there and wait forever until you come along to massacre them. No hurry, then.
Besides, she deserves to be kept waiting, giving you that crap about there being “no time” to tell you what you’d be up against if you agreed to help her. No time? How long is it that you’re willing to follow me around before you start complaining that we need to get a move on, again? And how long is the journey to the keep? Eight hours? DO YOU THINK EIGHT HOURS MIGHT BE ENOUGH TIME FOR A BRIEF SUMMARY, AT LEAST?
Interruptions, interruptions. That’s the last of them, thankfully, so we’ve got a clear run to Korgan now. Almost there, almost there…damn it. All that and they still spotted us.
Well, we’re certainly not going to back down from this moron, so it looks like Vespero’s in for a fight. Not to worry, though. He may be devoid of spells and anything resembling prowess in combat, but I’ve still got one thing to fall back on.
Wands.
This game has a sense of humour.
Don’t get me wrong. That’s not to say I find what just happened here to be amusing. But it definitely has a sense of humour.
With Vespero’s intelligence boosted to 23, he was able to neatly and efficiently transcribe every single scroll he had in his inventory.
With two exceptions.
Stoneskin. And Haste.
I realise I seem very calm and collected about this, but understand that most of the words that I want to type here would be highly, highly inappropriate for my younger audience, should I happen to have one. With that in mind, I will have to settle for the following paragraph:
**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** *********************************
In rather more welcome news, this process has caused Vespero to leap from level 1 to level 5, and he's well on his way to 6. Plus, he can't actually cast level 4 spells yet, so he wouldn't have been able to use Stoneskin anyway. So that's good. It's cool. I'm cool. There are other scrolls of Stoneskin in the game. No problem. I don't need to let this upset me. Deep breaths.
OK. In light of this development, we really can't afford to screw around here. We need some meatshields and we need them now, so it's back to the slums to pick up Korgan. Hopefully he won't start badgering us about his quest too soon.
On our way to get our potion, we come across two guys fighting over some girl. If their names are any indication, these are the two people who tried to murder us for a bounty, way, way back when we were in Candlekeep. Admittedly it was a feeble attempt, but it’s still quite enough for us to have no qualms whatsoever about breaking out the popcorn and watching these two kill each other.
Sadly, our entertainment is cut short, if you’ll pardon the pun. The fight literally ends in half a second, with Shank running Carbos through with a mighty blow and then throwing down his sword, turning to face us and bellowing “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?! IS THAT NOT WHY YOU ARE HERE?!”
Actually, he doesn’t do that, because his puny brain is incapable of that level of "badass". Instead, his girl complains that he got blood on her dress and he goes chasing after her, dragging his knuckles across the ground and drooling slightly. At first we sigh with disappointment, but then we remember Carbos’ dead body. Sweet, free gold.
With that pleasant little distraction over and done with, we move on and finally get our grubby mits on a Potion of Genius. As soon as we knock this sucker back, we’ll begin scribing these magical scrolls right here in the street, in plain view of everyone in the district.
Truly, the vigilance of the Cowled Wizards knows no bounds
We’re outside, and Brus very kindly takes us straight to the edge of the district, saving us a ten-second walk. What would I do without you, kid?
As always at this point, Jaheira immediately starts kvetching, demanding to know what our plan of action is and telling Vespero that he sounds like he was dropped or kicked as a child. Well, screw you, you insensitive harpy. Maybe he was. Maybe that’s exactly what happened to him, and is the reason for him being such a sociopathic loon despite being utterly convinced that he is Lawful Good. Did you ever think about that? Of course not. You’re far too busy concealing your exuberance over the convenient demise of your whipping boy.
We agree to try and be pleasant to each other, though Vespero secretly resolves to put fire ants in her bedroll as soon as he can find some.
To tbe Bridge district, whereupon Lieutenant Aegisfield informs us that there is a disgustingly sick person running around town. Vespero, of course, assumes that this man is on to him and immediately reaches for his katana to silence him.
He then remembers that he forgot how to use his katana and probably doesn’t stand much of a chance with his barely-adequate knowledge of how to handle a quarterstaff, so he lets it drop. For now. But this pig will get his, oh yes he will.
Conveniently, we can accomplish two of our objectives here. Not only is this where we can pick up a Potion of Genius, but the thief we need to catch for Galoomp is lurking only a few yards away. We go up to talk to him, and he immediately blurts out a confession without having to be subjected to even mild coercion.
Easy, perhaps, but not much fun.
We determine through dialogue that this thief, whose name is Kram, is extremely ugly. He gives us a sob story about how daddy made him this way and he can’t make any friends because of how he looks so he stole scrolls of the "Friends" spell to make people like him and blah blah blah.
There are numerous ways to solve this one, probably the most “rewarding” of which is giving him the Ring of Human Influence so that he, too, can pretend to be good at talking to people. Take it off for a second...yep, Vespero's natural charisma is still 4. To hell with that.
Our other options include simply letting him go on his way, (optionally taking the scrolls he stole first) turning him in to the guards, or killing him.
Remember how I said that if it didn’t break any quests and I didn’t have to force-attack them, I’d kill anyone? Yeah. Bye, Kram.
In Vespero’s defence, it was the only way he was going to wring any XP out of this quest. Giving him the ring is the “proper” way to complete this one, but with Vespero’s charisma as low as it is, it simply wouldn't have been worth it. You don’t get *much* experience, just more than you would by doing it another way, (i.e. more than zero) and there are plenty of other places where we can boost our reputation.
Therefore, we’re just going to have to settle for the XP we get for sticking this meat sack, a measly 500. Aegisfield, who is standing well within range, very kindly decides to aid us in our apparent murder of an innocent halfling, taking potshots at him while Jaheira clubs him to death. Man, he really must have been ugly if a dedicated and upstanding member of the city watch was willing to help us kill him.
Incidentally, Kram’s last words are, “I’m just a soul of good intentions…Lords, please don’t let me be misunderstood.”
No joke.
Normally, at this point, I’d go upstairs and buy the Glasses of Identification from the merchant upstairs, thereby saving me the trouble of having to arse around with the scrolls and/or memorising the spell. However, we’ve installed the “Identify All Items” component from BGII Tweaks, so we won’t be needing them. We will, however, purchase ourselves a gem bag for keeping all those expensive jewels that’ll come in handy in TOB.
On the subject of jewels: I find it interesting that a lot of spells in D&D (the real game) require the material component of a valuable gem, which is almost invariably consumed when you cast the spell.
For example, “True Resurrection“, a spell that allows one to bring anyone or anything back to life no matter how long its been dead or how little you may know about it, (no excuse, Jaheira) requires one to use a perfectly cut, high-quality diamond worth no less than 5000 gold pieces.
Presumably this is to impose a limitation, because you don't want people casting spells like this all over the place. However, I think they've got it backwards. Once an adventurer is at a high enough level to cast spells like that, 5000 GP is nothing. I think, instead, it would be much more restricting if they had to find a perfectly cut, high-quality diamond worth no more than a single copper coin.
After all, for a high-value diamond, you just kill a dragon and take its hoard, and hey, 5000 GP. There'd probably even be just such a diamond in there somewhere, saving you the trouble of having to go out and buy one. At that level, no problem.
If it were the other way around, you would have to embark on a great mission to systematically locate and destroy major sources of copper all over the world, thereby artificially increasing its value until it becomes rarer than perfectly cut diamonds.
And of course, once you’ve done that you'll have completely screwed up the economy. Everyone will be angry with you. Nobody gets angry with you for killing a dragon.
What was I doing? Oh yeah, Baldur’s Gate.
Yep, we’ve just spent an entire update on going upstairs and buying a bag. I begin to wonder how long you people are going to read this crap for.
You’ve got creatures with misaligned alignments. Enemies that are incapable of following you through closed doors. Dragons that will stand idly by and watch you while you place deadly traps mere inches away from their feet.
But by far, the biggest oversight on the part of the developers was the omission of the dialogue option wherein Charname punches Gaelan Bayle in the larynx, thereby ensuring that he has cooed his last coo. This action would permanently set your reputation to 20, alter your alignment to Chaotic Good and cause the Shadow Thieves to be so pleased with you that they would charter your ride to Brynnlaw free of charge.
Alas.
We go through the same old routine, asking him why we should be inclined to believe that this isn’t all a trap, to which his response is “I have no interest in setting up a trap.”
Oh, well, that’s OK, then. I suppose my suspicions have been all been allayed and I now trust you implicitly, because if this were actually a trap I’m sure you would happily tell me as much upon being questioned about it.
“Come with me and you can decide whether to enter me house.”
No, actually, I don’t think we can.
Come on. I know that if you could actually refuse to go and speak to him at this point then you’d basically be stuck, but they could have done something here to make this feel less railroaded.
Anyway, you know the drill here. More talking, more beating around the bush, “20,000 of your American GP”, shut up shut up I don’t want to talk to you anymore just let me resume playing the game OH PLEASE JUST LET ME OUT OF THIS ROOM BEFORE HE STARTS SAYING COO AGAIN.
Aaaand cutscene. Super.
