- TotSC quests must be undertaken (for the first time in years...).***
Gorion took me by surprise this morning when he told me that we're to leave Candlekeep asap, and he gave me some gold to buy equipment for our journey. I'll be keeping this diary to organize my thoughts and to record my experiences.
I actually like the prospect of traveling beyond Candlekeep's walls so I didn't linger much. Did a few chores, said my goodbyes, and just finished shopping at Winthrop's (only bought throwing daggers). Dip "procured" an enchanted dagger for me somewhere when I wasn't looking. I think I'll never get to teach that devious little badger.
Anyway, there's no time to look for the weapon's owner. Off I am, with Gorion and Dip beside me.
***
My foster father is no more. Last night we were ambushed by a group of ruffians whose leader demanded Gorion to hand me over to him. Gorion refused, told me to run, and fought valiantly against our attackers. Nevertheless he was no match for their commander and their priestess. I don't know what to think of all this apart from lamenting Gorion's death. There was little I could have done with only a single Armor spell memorized. It's also very upsetting that such an experienced, renowned and allegedly powerful wizard is unable to dispatch a couple of young adventurers (judging by their voices, and by the priestess' looks), even though their leader was admittedly huge. For years I've been fed the notion that the arcane art is the highest of all arts that one might pursue, but maybe magic isn't all that? Either way, my foster father gave his life for me, and he shall be avenged.
***
Imoen, my friend from Candlekeep found me this morning by the road; she wanted to travel with me, but I went straight back to Candlekeep with her, and I explained to her in words that were perhaps harsher than necessary, that she had no business out in the wilds. I mean if Gorion wasn't prepared for the road, what about little Imoen? All she knows is to pick the occasional lock, or pocket, but I can't see how that will help her survive an ambush like that of last night. And such an ambush might well reoccur, because for some reason those people were after me last night, not Gorion. I can't expose Imoen to such a threat. Interestingly the Gatewarden told us that Imoen was welcome and that I wasn't. He wouldn't explain why.
***
On Gorion's body I found a letter this morning telling that I might find friends at the Friendly Arm Inn, but the Gods know who else have read that letter, so I decided to travel southward, away from the road most of the time, to Beregost. I met two travelers who asked me to join them, a Necromancer named Xzar and a Halfling warrior by the name of Montaron. They were headed for Nashkel, so I decided to join with them until I would reach Beregost. The Necromancer was quite enthusiastic when he learnt that I was a Mage myself. He even gave me two scrolls to scribe: Chill Touch and Larloch's Minor Drain. I successfully copied the former to my spellbook, but messed up with the latter, much to his dismay and my own. Dip found an enchanted ring, placed on top of a large rock, quite ostentatiously really. Maybe someone had put it there on purpose? In Beregost I told my companions that we might meet soon in Nashkel, but that I had some business to attend to in Beregost. With only a few GP in my pockets I wanted to first look for work in Beregost and vicinity. I did get a couple of jobs, and was reasonably well-rewarded for them. I fetched a book for Firebead Elvenhair, a frequent visitor of Candlekeep. In the Jovial Juggler Inn I was told of a gnomish lady who lived next door but had left her home and fled to the Friendly Arm Imm. Her house had been invaded by four Huge Spiders. I dispatched the monsters by luring them out onto the streets one by one, and killed them with my throwing daggers. Will seek a reward in due time.
Just south of Beregost I slew two Ogrillons who had just killed a Halfling courier. On one of them I found a letter to a certain Mirianne in Beregost. I located her, gave her the letter, and was rewarded with a ring identical to the ring Dip had found on the road to Beregost. At the Temple of Lathander high priest Keldath Ormlyr informed me of a bounty on the head of Bassilus, aka the mad priest of Cyric, and of a reward for dispatching a gnomish Illusionist named Mutamin and his dire-charmed Basilisks. I would go after those Basilisks, but I'm not sure whether I'm prepared yet to fight such beasts. All the fighting so far has been quite tiresome, and it's frustrating that what little magic I command is of almost no use. I really don't see how I'm to become a competent Mage now that I'm not in the safety of Candlekeep anymore, and now that I acually have to work to make a living.
There was one occasion where my magic was of some use though. For Thalantyr the Conjurer I located his former apprentice who had run off with a pair of potentially dangerous gauntlets. The apprentice, Melicamp, had been tranformed into a chicken upon equipping the gauntlets. I saved the chicken from a hungry wolf after I managed to blind the animal.
When I returned to Thalantyr with the apprentice, the wizard told me he could only restore Melicamp to his human form with a dead object, such as a skull. With tremendous difficulty and with the aid of my trusty ferret, I managed to obtain a skull from one of the nasty, dagger-throwing Skeletons that roamed the area.
I picked up Dip and ran back inside with the skull. Even had to shake off a Flind in order to reach Thalantyr. And to what end? Well, only to see the wizard fail to retransform Melicamp, killing the chicken in the process. I didn't even get paid anything for my effort. All in all an exceedingly disappointing experience.
South of Beregost I retrieved a heirloom amulet for a man whose family had been brutally murdered by Hobgoblins. Of course there was no way for me to exact justice on the scum, simply because I don't have the means to fight a band of Hobgoblins, including archers, and live to the tell the tale. I decided to travel southward to Nashkel and see if I could find Xzar and Montaron, but they were nowhere to be seen. I described them to one of the townspeople but all he did was making studid comments about how everyone seemed to hate him and asking me when I was going to kick him? I could see why, and it took me a great mental effort not to bust his head and shut him up when he refused to leave me alone. Other townspeople, including the mayor and some of the guards, told me they had indeed seen Xzar and Montaron, but they didn't know of the duo's whereabouts, so I gave up the search. They did tell me about disappearances and tarnished iron ore in the Nashkel Mines, and of a murderous Nashkel Guard captain and an emerald thief on whose heads bounties had been placed.
As I strolled off, with the intention of heading westward I found a suit of Ankheg armor. I inquired with the Guards but the armor didn't seem to belong to anyone, so I kept it, or to be more precise: I donned it. I've made a decision that may well change the course of my adventuring life: never mind my arcane studies, I'm going to train myself as a fighter! I mean I'm all alone, I've got almost no gold, no one to tutor me in magical arts, and besides, that armor must have been left there for a reason.
[Victor was a level 3 Mage when he dualed to Fighter.]
***
I've had little training beyond my combat classes in Candlekeep, where I mostly learned to defend myself with a dagger. It's been about a week now that one of the Nashkel guards, a fellow named Bardolan, has taken it upon him to train me in the use of sword and bow in exchange for some gold. A week is nothing of course but more than 50 hours of intensive practice I do feel I now master the most basic combat stances and movements. And according to Bardolan I'm a fairly talented marksman. My tutor actually recommended me to seek out the Basilisks that I was so wary of. Protection from Petrification would be indispensable because of the beasts' gaze attacks, but otherwise Basilisks are relatively slow and clumsy. They would offer an excellent opportunity to test my combat skills without running too much risk. Bardolan sent me to a merchant at the Nashkel Carnival who sold me a scroll of Protection from Petrification.
***
On my way north I battled a number of Gibberlings and Hobgoblins. They had difficulty hurting me thanks to the solid protection my ankheg armor provides. When I reached the Basilisk area east of Beregost, I soon learnt that it was as Bardolan had expected. I found the Basilisks especially vulnerable in melee combat without them being much of a threat to me, even though there was one of Greater Basilisk that forced me to quaff a healing potion or two. At one point I even started attacking with my dagger +1 in my left hand.
[Victor's starting profs as a fighter went to Bastard Swords **, Shortbows *, and Two Weapon Fighting *; at fighter lvl 3 a second pip was placed in TWF.]
I had a big scare when, while I was battling four Basilisks, suddenly Mutamin the Gnome (whom I hadn't seen anywhere until then) arrived at the scene, none too pleased to see me. I decided to retreat before he would cast some kind of charm on me similar to those he had used on the Basilisks. And I would have simply abandoned my mission if it weren't for a Ghoul who inexplicably wanted to serve me. The Ghoul was immune to the Basilisk gazes, and stunned Mutamin with its fell claws. It allowed me to safely dispatch the wizard and the remaining Basilisks.
With that business out of the way I traveled to the Friendly Arm Inn to claim a reward for clearing the spider-infested house in Beregost.
Before actually making it inside the inn, I slew an Ogre (gravely injured with ranged attacks and finished off in melee) south of the inn; I disptached a group of Hobgoblins who had stolen a ring from a retired adventurer (Dip, my keen-eyed and ever alert scout, found me another magical ring, one that gives me more spells to cast); and I had to deal with a wizard that horrored me but failed to make use of my temporary state of panic. On the wizard's corpse I found a bounty notice mentioning a price on my head. I burnt the piece of paper, but I doubt it was the only copy. I've got no clue who could want me dead, and why.
Inside the Inn the Gnome from Beregost rewarded me handsomely when I showed her a Spider's corpse and told her I had removed the Huge Spiders that had infested her home. I also met Khalid and Jaheira, the 'friends' that Gorion had told me about and that were also mentioned in the letter I found on his body. They didn't recognize me immediately. Must have expected someone different than a heavily armored guy like me. Khalid especially seemed surprised by my presence; he started to stutter. It almost had me laugh out loud, but I managed to check myself. The two offered to join me, and to travel with me to Nashkel where they were to meet the town mayor, but I declined. I told them I had already been to Nashkel, and that my priority was not the trouble in the Nashkel Mines but to form a solid party capable of finding and dispatching Gorion's killers. I met a more suitable traveling companion at the inn, a big Half-Orc warrior, but he mistook me for a waiter and showed no interest in my cause.
Further north the city of Baldur's Gate was closed due to banditry threatening the safety of the city, so I made my way south again, to Beregost, to see if in that travelers and adventurers' hub any new faces had arrived. In one of the town's shops I met a Dwarven mercenary by the name of Kagain. He ran a caravan company, and asked me to accompany him to check on a large caravan the arrival of which in Baldur's Gate was long overdue. We found the caravan stranded and pilfered by bandits, a couple of hours north of Beregost. With his business ruined by the event, Kagain offered to join me, in order to hopefully make some money and kill some bandits.
[Kagain was level 4 with 43 HP upon joining.]
I find it hard to determine where to look for reinforcements as well as for my foster father's killer. After I told Kagain of the bounties on the heads of two criminals from Nashkel, the former guard captain and the emerald thief, Kagain suggested that we travel south, and I agreed seeing little else for us to do. On our way, we were ambushed again, but this time the assailants had no particular interest in me, only my belongings. Battle was imminent, when we received support from an unexpected ally, the Half-Orc warrior I had met in the Friendly Arm. The ambushers turned out to be old foes of his. The three of us slew them, and the Half-Orc, Dorn he called himself, was so pleased with Kagain's work and mine that he proposed a partnership. Dorn is a warrior of tremendous strength, and a Blackguard with dark powers he receives from some dark force. I'm not sure how well the Half-Orc can be trusted, but for the time being our agendas match, so Kagain and I agreed to his proposal.
[Dorn was level 4 with 30 HP upon joining.]
Like me Dorn is involved in a vendetta with a group of people that have crossed him, former companions in his case. And like me, he has no clue yet where to look. Therefore we continued with our plan to explore the southern Sword Coast in pursuit of the murderous guard captain and the emerald thief, and who knows any clues that might bring us further in our personal quests for retribution.
We traveled to the Cloudpeaks where we fought battles against different groups of lowlifes and beasts. None of them formed a true threat to us, though a ferocious Winter Wolf almost killed Dorn at one point.
***
There can be no doubt that this iron crisis that people have been talking about is true. My blades kept on shattering, so I ordered my men back to Beregost, where I had seen an enchanted Bastard Sword for sale, and an enchanted axe as well, which would serve Kagain. We only had the gold for one of both weapons. It went to the bastard sword. Kagain didn't object; he had seen my blades shatter one after the other.
***
In Beregost, Dorn must have received a channeling from the dark god or demon he serves because he suddenly announced that he had a lead on one of his former companions. Kagain and I followed him east of the Nashkel Mines and indeed, there was a female Necromancer at work with a number of corpses. She was not without charm, and tried to persuade Dorn not to seek vengeance, but the Half-Orc was unmoved. The Mage enfeebled me and horrored Kagain, giving us all a hard time, but with a devastating strike with his greatsword Dorn finished her off.
On the woman's body we found a letter giving further leads to a camp set up by some of Dorn's former companions just outside Baldur's Gate. However, since that bridge to that city is lifted, we cannot reach them, yet.
***
From Beregost we traveled back to the western Cloudpeaks where we continued our exploration. As we went furrther westward, we ran into more and more Gnolls until we saw from afar a fortress guarded by Gnolls. Dorn, ever bloodthirsty was eager to fight them, while Kagain, more calculating was less willing. However as we slew two Half-Ogres guarding a bridge to the stronghold, and found a pair of Brawling Hands (Gauntlets of Dexterity) on one of them, the Dwarf too became more enthusiastic. The gauntlets went to the Dwarf, making him an impressive tank. I lost count of the number of Gnolls we slew.
All I know is that we cleared the entire fortress, and that we saved a woman that had been captured by the monsters. She had nothing to give us, so I told her to simply run off and enjoy her refound freedom.
[Victor reached level 6 here; his last proficiency point for BG1 was a third pip in Bastard Swords, not necessarily optimal but fitting for his development.]
Back in Nashkel we decided to sell some of the loot we had found in the Cloudpeaks (the proceeds of which would allow us to buy me a suit of full plate mail and Kagain an axe +1), and to take some well-earned rest at the local inn. Inside, we met with a priestess, another bounty hunter who had a more permanent form of rest for us in mind though, or for me at least. A fight ensued, and it was a helpful Monk that eventually slew the bounty hunter.
I spoke with the Monk afterward. He introduced himself as Rasaad and was very softspoken and composed even though he, like Dorn and myself, was looking for justice after a grave wrong had been done to members of his Selune venerating Sun Soul order: an entire monastery had been slain by followers of Shar, Selune's bitter rival. I welcomed him into the party, though I have yet to see what he has to contribute. I find it hard to comprehend fight without using armor and with nothing but his bare fists. While we haven't found any clues in the south as to our quarries, there is still the coast to explore, our next destination.
Retour en haut
That's ok, since it's a cheap revival at level 1.
