Congrats Quad Multiplayers 
Jianson, in that case I have no explanation for the XP difference. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some good news for a change: I’ve dismantled the Iron Throne, revealed Sarevok’s agenda (thus salvaged my tarnished reputation in Baldur’s Gate) and I’ve slain my nemesis and his lackeys.
In Candlekeep I found a letter from Gorion in which he explained my heritage: Bhaal, the Lord of Murder was my father. This might explain my special abilities to lay on hands, slow poison, and my divine wrath, powers that have come to me in dreams. It also explains why the Moonmaiden never took these powers from me: they didn’t come from her in the first place.
The thought of being Bhaal’s daughter is upsetting, but I must say that I’ve never felt and still don’t feel any connection apart from the above-mentioned abilities I never even asked for. The question is whether Bhaal’s essence exerts some kind of subtle influence that I’m not even aware of. Was it his essence, his blood running through my veins, that had me take the fight with Nemphre outside and confused but good-natured Alora to kill innocents? I don’t know, but I do know that it makes little sense to dwell on this all the time. The past doesn’t matter, what I need to do is to stay in the moment, in the present, conscious of my actions.
In the Candlekeep library we met and confronted the Iron Throne leaders (except Sarevok). I had expected them to be older merchant-types but they turned out to be capable adventurers not unlike my party. We prevailed without too much difficulty though. Alora played an important part again. With a single backstab she slew their Thief, and she stunned and poisoned Rieltar, a Mage, who was subsequently finished off by Khalid. The other Iron Throne leaders, were taken care of by the party in a joint effort. Interestingly, we were arrested by a Candlekeep watcher after some of his own colleagues had helped us against Rieltar.
Tethoril visited us in our cell and was so kind to help us escape via the catacombs beneath Candlekeep, a deed I shan’t forget. Down there we got into a bloody fight with a band of mercenaries who had been waiting for Sarevok. Apparently Sarevok knew Candlekeep well… We were invisible but when we after we killed a Phase Spider us in a quiet space, one of the mercenaries, a Mage, came Dimension Dooring in. We slew him and two of his comrades with relative ease.
At that point, the worst had yet to come: a wizard-******-timebomb named Sakul. He brought back memories of Natasha in the Cloakwood Mines. Protected by a Minor Globe of Invulnerability he used Teleport Field and Web to limit our room to manoeuver, and he hurt me with a Lightning Bolt and my party with two Sunfires. Khalid and Faldorn didn’t survive the onslaught and the rest of us just barely (by quaffing healing potions). Alora, Jaheira and I had to fight our way through his Stoneskins and Mirror Images before we could finish him off.
Back in Baldur’s Gate we raised our fallen comrades, were informed of the latest news by a mysterious woman named Tamoko, saved Duke Eltan from a pseudo-healer that was in fact a Greater Doppelganger, and dealt with Sarevok’s lover Cythandria on the top floor in the Iron Throne building. She was a dangerous wizard with two massive golems by her side, but we had to take her on because she was holding incriminating evidence against Sarevok. Alora lured the golems downstairs, while Faldorn dispelled the wizard’s magical protections, allowing us to take her down with little difficulty. The brainless Golems were tricked by Invisible party members blocking the doorways, while so that I could pelt them without trouble.
On Cythandria we found letters mentioning two killers hired by Sarevok to take down the Dukes of Baldur’s Gate for him. They were supposed to be in the Undercellars below The Blushing Mermaid, and that’s where we found them: Slythe, a rogue and his girl Krystin, a wizard. We first took on Krystin. That went probably better than it could have, since Khalid managed to Horror her twice with his Sword of Rage. That being said, she did cause the party quite a lot of trouble. She successfully cast Chaos on a couple of my party members. When Faldorn started attacking a courtesan [Zizi the Lovebundle, no idea who she is], Dynaheir cast Invisibility (15’ Radius) on the harlot, in order to prevent any further reputation losses. Meanwhile Khalid got fried by Krystin’s Lightning Bolt, but then Alora stunned Krysting with a Dart of Stunning, after which Jaheira and I took finished her off with ranged attacks.
[Confused Faldorn killed the bouncer by the way, but fortunately did so at no reputation loss.]
Slythe was easier to deal with. Dynaheir was Stoneskinned and Faldorn Ironskinned, they would take turns engaging the rogue in melee, while Jaheira, Alora and I would attack with our ranged weapons. This worked fine.
We found an invitation to the intended coronation of Sarevok as the new Duke of Baldur’s Gate at the Ducal Palace. When we arrived we saw the “public” turn into Shapeshifters and attack Duke Belt and Duchess Liia Janneth. The Shapeshifters would cast Horror all the time. I quaffed a potion of Magic Shielding and Khalid wanted to activate his sword’s Rage ability, but was (once again) too late. I was the only one fighting six Shapeshifters and desperately trying to protect the Dukes. I couldn’t save the Duchess and would have probably failed at protecting Duke Belt as well if it weren’t for Faldorn’s Insect Plague.
We presented the evidence against Sarevok to Duke Belt, after which the former was teleported away by a wizard. Belt divined their whereabouts and sent us their way. We had to find our way through a trapped maze, guarded by undead, to reach the Undercity and Sarevok’s Sanctum.
Before entering though, we had to deal with a group of Iron Throne hirelings from another region. They were on the same mission as us, stopping Sarevok, but found it necessary to attack us anyway. Their wizard was stunned by one of Alora’s darts, and their Priest was repeatedly interrupted by my arrows and taken down together with their fighters by Alora, Jaheira and Khalid. When the stun effect on the Mage wore off she triggered a lot of protections and managed to kill Dynaheir with a Lightning Bolt before Faldorn could dispel her protections allowing the rest of us to finish her off.
Alora scouted ahead and ran into Tamoko in front of the entrance to Sarevok’s sanctum. She told Alora she would not let us pass, and he triggered a Blade Barrier and a number of other clerical buffs and protections. Alora ran away and hid until Tamoko’s protections had worn off. With overwhelming physical force we downed our foe.
We then entered Sarevok’s temple. My companions all quaffed potions of invisibility, and I cast a green scroll of Protection from Magic on myself. Sarevok had four guards we had to slay first before Sarevok could be touched: Diarmid (an archer), Angelo, Semaj (both wizards), and resurrected Tazok. I took them on in that order: Diarmid and Semaj mostly with ranged attacks, and Angelo and Tazok in melee. There was little risk involved. Two or three times Sarevok noticed me and came after me, but I countered by quaffing invisibility potions and going after the lackeys first.
Sarevok himself was more difficult to deal with because he was hasted. My companions would formed an invisible wall to facilitate my ranged attacking. When he was near death, I quaffed another invisibility potion and we all surrounded Sarevok, we attacked at the same time. It was Alora’s backstab that did him in.
We reported our victory to Belt and are now on our way to Amn. We might stop in Nashkel to see how Minsc has been doing…
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally another successful no-reload through BG1.
Call me a stick-in-the-mud but I’m not overly pleased (which may be notable from the perfunctory journaling this time). Of my current and former party members only Alora, who joined at a very late stage, and Serene haven’t died. Coran has died six times, Khalid four at least, Faldorn once or twice, Dynaheir five or six times, and Minsc twice iirc. That’s about 20 Raise Deads. I've kind of lost track. At one point NPC deaths completely stopped making an impact. I feel like I've played a regular reload game. Having five “meat shields” that I can raise whenever I want takes away a lot of the fun/challenge I notice.
I still have to decide whether or not to continue, and if so whether to do it right away, or to do a “test run” (allowing reloads) through BG2 with another character because it’s been quite a long time since I’ve played it. What I do know is that in subsequent playthroughs I’ll go back to soloing or I’ll apply a resurrection limit of 1 or 2 per party member.
At the moment I'm inclined to let Serene rest for a while and do a metagamed speedrun with a Fighter/Thief or see how my Halfling Barbarian/Druid works.
Retour en haut
