Tigranes

Unfinished Business (BG2) v19: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/44877548/UnfinishedBusiness-v19.exe

For those looking for Gibberlings 3 mods, here are sort-of-latest versions of what I consider to be pretty essential mods: SCS, WIdescreen, Tweaks, Fixpack, Spell Revisions, Level 1 NPC: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/44877548/bg2mods.zip

Keep in mind IWD2 was made in ten months, and they were feeling the pressure of making 'yet another IE game' that actually tried to introduce new things. I love the game, but some of the convoluted scripting that resulted in the Fell Wood and other areas were not really what the team intended.

Don't worry about it Bester, when we get to you I'll make something of your mage. Next update will come before the end of 25th, finishing up De'Arnise Keep then returning to Athkatla for some non-combat oriented quests. We seriously need some loot/XP beefing up for this party, I really don't know if I can beat SCS Torgal...

Wow, I'd love to join, as a mage, human, male, egocentric, what's meta-game role? If you're taking more names then I'd like to join as a multi-class cleric/mage, elf, male, who is totally not Aerie and acts as general support. Sure. By 'meta-game role' I just mean if you wanted your character to 'play' in a particular manner, e.g right now Nepenthe's the resident trapbreaker. The waitlist is now pretty lengthy, but we seem to be racking up at least 1 death each update. I'll probably start new characters at Tales of the Sword Coast XP cap, so that they don't take forever to catch up. Currently Calax, TrueNeutral and Pidesco are on Strike 1/3.

Come on, guys. He'll be fine without us. We take stock of our haul. First, a hammer that is good against giants... which doesn't really help us. An Elven Court Bow with +4 THAC0, which we hand to Pidesco as the only bow-user in the group. (Seriously, the proficiencies are screwed up. The only character with longsword proficiency is Gorth, who's an Archer, and only Pidesco has bow proficiency - and those are the two best weapon categories in the campaign.) Given he still has 19 THAC0, I suppose this helps. Also a nice battle-axe, except nobody uses axes. We have also found all three pieces of the Flail of Ages - the third piece was in the statues, and I forget where the second was. Being magical, the complicated process of forging a sturdy flail takes about three seconds. The weapon goes to Calax, as the only blunt weapon proficient in the party. The experience of forging flails triggers a Pid-Up.

We pilfer the second statue, and this time, it's two stone golems. Unfortunately, they can cast Slow repeatedly as an innate power, and Nepenthe is too slow to get back on the right side of the chokepoint. We beat a retreat to try and admit Nepenthe, but that just lets the trolls through. Pidesco is on 1HP, and Slowed... Pidesco: MOVE! MOVE! Calax keeps the golem at bay, while I swoop in with my innate Heal Light Wounds. The golem soon falls. Achievement Earned! What? It looks like you healed an ally at just 1 hit point! This qualifies you for Achievement: Back From The Brink! ...do I get anything? Well, collect all the achievements, and you'll be able to feel the satisfaction of having every achievement available! ...how many do I have? Oh, you already have 62! How the hell do I have that many? Would you like a list of your achievements? Achievement: Watched the Opening Cinematic! Achievement: Quick-Saved A Game! Achie- Ah. The experience of being an achiever has lifted me to new heights of power. And now, it's time for the final statue. A giant iron golem, who is in fact immune to +5 to hit weapons and lower, awaits us. (Or was it +3? I forget.) Of course, it can't actually fit through the doorway. (I often try and take him on, but we dont' have anything more than +2 to hit - SCS also mods Melf's Minute Meteors from +6 to hit to +2, which I *think* is more orthodox.)

We pick up a frost wand, which happens to be hidden in a fireplace rigged with a firestrike trap. Nepenthe: An Ironic Trap. My favourite. Nepenthe: Well, this one's not very ironic. Gorth: It's going to rebound across the entire room, get out! Pidesco: RUN AWAY! We narrowly avoid a Party Wipe by virtue of a single, rebounding lightning bolt. I'm a little sad, really. It would have made a great epitaph... Glaicus was Lord De'Arnise's right hand man, now dominated by the Yuan-Ti into serving their will. You can actually dispel the magic and free him from his enslavement, though I dont' know if that was a mod restoration or in vanilla. In any case, we don't have such higher level magics available to us right now. (I believe it is Chaotic Commands we need here.) A potion of- son of a b****, his strength is going up to 24. Calax: It's time for me to shine. If there was TrueNeutral's shapeshifting, my worship of Talos grants me the power of LIGHTNING BOLT! Uh... Glaicus makes the save, and the bolt begins rebounding. Calax: NO! TIAX- uh, Calax will not be defeated by mere geometry! Thankfully, the bolt only rebounds back and forth on the same spot, but Nepenthe is on low health and must stay at a safe distance, while Calax and Pidesco are also struggling. Glaicus finally gets a quarterstaff to the face. The final attraction of Level 2 is a giant room with golems in a line. On the top left, you see three statues; each holds a valuable weapon. Grabbing one of them, we awaken two of the golems. You'd think if you were assigning large golems to guard your treasure, you'd have a larger doorway. Or a door that closes when you touch the weapons. But no, I guess the Power of Geometry is with us yet again. Pidesco levels up once again. He's still at 19 THAC0 and can't hit anything smaller than a house, but one day, he dreams of being... useful.

Gorth levels up in the meantime. We're doing reasonably well, but running out of healing spells to keep up the melee. It's time to break out our secret weapon. TrueNeutral: It's time to reveal my true identity. I am.... I am... TrueNeutral in his side job. The Werewolf begins chomping on troll meat, but just when we seem to be winning, Pidesco flees round a corner, and... Pidesco: MORE TROLLS! MORE TROOLLLLLLS! This is bad. Pidesco kindly lures the trolls to our location, then runs off. I use my Stoneskinned body to block the way, but the last Wild Surge ('Dizzy') means all my spells are failing. The original group of trolls are half dead, and it's a race against time. Barely three turns in my stoneskin runs out, and I have no choice but to admit Troll Pack #2. Our only solution is good ol' fashioned brawling. Calax's muscles fail him. Desperate, I dig out a scroll of Haste from my pack. The dizziness having worn off, this time, it works. Three trolls remain. Quaffing healing potions liberally, I resort to The Power of Geometry to vanquish my enemies. The last troll falls. The Werewolf stands alone, surrounded by a dozen unmoving limbs. TrueNeutral: I. Am. Awesome. There is no major problem after that, and we navigate the second floor of the Keep. We come across Lady De'Arnise, who is a propser Arse. We do have the option to kill her, and simply claim that she was done in by the trolls. It's tempting, but my Adventurer roots tug at my alignment. I no longer seek the path of hero, only of power; yet am I someone who kills remarkably annoying morons without remorse? In the end, I cannot decide, and the Arse runs free. The next one may not be so lucky.

Booya. (To be honest, TrueNeutral makes up for his uselessness everywhere else just with two Call Lightnings a day.) Nearby we find Spot, with his friends Sparky, Rex and Rover. This will be important later on. But our main task, at the moment, is to lower the drawbridge, which will allow reinforcements to enter the keep. Of course, they could all have entered with me via the secret passage and cause havoc that way, but I guess any excuse to not do their work is as good as any. ...and this is later on. Spot et al., we will remember your sacrifice. Now we just need to search a couple of rooms before going up to the second floor. Gorth, as usual, takes over the sneak duties. You can see the central hall is a no-go... ...except Gorth, a Ranger in Studded Leather, is not so good at staying hidden. And with SCS's Better Calls for Help, the trolls all come to join the party. It is not good. The rest of the party rushes in, and Gorth eventually loses the attention of several trolls, but there are enough of them to cause real trouble. We're going to need some buffing done. Oh, rubbish. Nepenthe, as a Cavalier, has an innate Remove Fear ability, which he quickly casts before everyone moves out of the zone. For some reason, it doesn't work on Pidesco... Pidesco: TROLLS! TROLLS EVERYWHERE! I DELETE AND WARN AND DELETE AND THEY JUST DON'T ***ING STOP- Pidesco runs around in circles while we try and make the best of it- oh, bloody hell. Aren't there any good Wild Surges? ....no, guess not.

We finally arrive at De'Arnise Keep, which Nalia told us was 'beset by unknown forces'. We are greeted by some sauteed skewers. The drawbridge has been raised as well. Off to the side, we find a small palisade camp housing the valiant fighters still keeping up the good fight. By valiant fighters, I mean two guards, a general, and Nalia the Unexperienced, who tells us that the keep is infested with trolls and yuan-ti. We smooth two dozen fire arrows, and enter the Keep via a secret passage. Our rescue operation is nearly scuppered before it has even begun, but thankfully, Calax comes to the rescue. Calax: It's skills like these that will get me the ladies. One day... Our first troll... ...chunks a servant, but it's so match for us. They aren't too bad - fairly hardy, but beat them down, fire an acid or fire arrow, and we're done. They should only be dangerous for us in larger numbers. I don't see why he's so angry. I just told him to run away from the trolls. The central area of the floor is infested with trolls; instead, we keep to the side passages, discovering a few secret rooms in the process. If we find three heads of the Flail of Ages, we will be able to forge the legendary weapon - which, as it turns out, is highly effective against trolls. Nepenthe: I love this keep. There aren't any traps. In fact, we only need go one room across to find Head #1, and a giant elephant sculpture. I guess someone decided it didn't fit the style. Again via side passages, we head outside to the courtyard. Here, we face our old enemy, the Otyugh. But of course, last time, we were indoors-

...who turns out to be a rakshasa, powerful Outsider sorcerers who are generally characterized by all being ****. He offers us the Word to unlock the lamp for ourselves, at a cost of only 500 gold. We could try and take him on, but given our recent luck, it seems a fair price. We cough up. Rubbing the lamp yields a Genie, but he counts Kalah's two wishes, leaving us with only one. I knew I should never buy magic lamps second-hand. Kalah appears to have wished, "I wish everyone loved me", and "I want to be awesome". Pretty hard to screw up with those wishes, but I suppose failure knows no depths. I of course picked up the Ring of Human Influence off his corpse, so I suppose we did benefit from that wish. Here is the list of wishes we can make; in practice, it functions like the arcane spell Limited Wish, with several context-specific options. (I believe wishing Irenicus dead, etc. just returns a no-can-do.) I actually reloaded after this dialogue - I don't want to use the lamp yet, but wanted to show you guys the options. So, you can let me know if there's something, or I will save it for a rainy day (which, given our record so far, is coming very soon). After spending that 500 gold, we're quite a way from the 5,000 needed for a magic user license in the city. So we might as well head out of town to raise the cash. We hardly journey an hour, however, when we are beset by a Random Encounter. Now, as we all know, Random Encounters are governed by a cosmic law of the universe: Forsooth. Naturally, we break out everything we have against the goons. Thankfully, they are neither as numerous nor powerful as the slavers, and our party makes quick work of them. Dude, we just left the city. If we take you back, we're going to have to come back out, and then we'll probably run into another random encounter. Weren't you paying attention? Gorth: Come on, it's no big deal. They'll probably give us a reward. Calax: I can carry him! He'll be no burden on my bulging, hormonal muscles. And so we trod back to the city, and to the Docks District. Some thieves are fighting a vampire head-on, which, given the fact that they're thieves, seems rather idiotic. We don't want to get involved with anything that drains levels, especially since Pidesco would be level-zero'd in about two hits, but we'll have to deal with them soon enough. So did I just embrace the Prince of Lies, or did I not? We get some spare change and a negligible amount of XP for our trouble. Gorth: Oh, come on. We got 14,000 XP! Shared across 6 party members, yes. I believe about thirty of these would net me a level. Gorth: Damn that inflation.

20. Trolls Click Here For Table of Contents Here we are, the Crooked Crane. It is this dinky little inn by the City Gates where the owner of Kalah's lamp hides. Clearly, an opportunity for a Jesus joke has been missed. Shame on you, Bioware. We pay the fee of 1 gold and retire for the night. My sleep is disturbed by an odd dream. It must be the smell. Imoen! My beloved half-sister who journeyed with me throughout my adventures in the Sword Coa- oh, right. Listen, if you're trying to get me to come rescue you, you're not making a great case here. Whoa. Now we're talking. How do I do that? A cameo by Sarevok. Don't worry, in the upcoming Enhanced Edition , this interlude is sure to be replaced by a state-of-the-art, 2014-quality cinematic! A sneak preview: (I have to say that Irenicus is written very well in the cutscenes. He doesn't say a whole lot, the voice acting is superb, and it ends just before it gets tedious.) Alright, back to work. I put the odd dream behind me and make contact with Jafir, the man behind the circus incident...

The page will get far too long if I update now, so... *bump*

A good deal of my recent Christmases have been spent alone with my guitar, games, books and (bad) cooking. Sometimes it sucks, but this year I think I'll be enjoying it.

Not yet.

Caesar 3. I usually play on Hard, but then give myself free $. The walking algorithms are way too weird to work out unless you really study them, so instead of milking taxes and trade I just like the city building and making everyone happy. I'm still sad that I can't make myself a nice Governor's Palace some distance off the rabble, because then none of the prefects come round and the whole place burns down.

I can't afford real furniture so everything I have in the US is Ikean. It's... OK, actually.

We depart the Coronet and head towards the City Gates, where the man behind Kalah's antics is said to be. Of course, we are interrupted by a Random Encounter of Slavers... This is actually a very difficult battle for our still underequipped party. SCS soups up the encounters, and allows all mage/clerics to pre-buff just like player parties. (My settings are fairly moderate; the encounters are scaled up only a little, and I only allow ambushes like these to pre-buff, which makes more sense.) A flurry of lights greet us as we struggle to get our bearings. We reposition ourselves, web the archer on the top left, Call Lightning on another slaver, and set up a Chaos spell.. ..oh, fine. Just one-hit me with a backstab, why don't you. Since we were very far from a party wipe, this counts as a Bhaalspawn Death, and we reload to try again. I suppose it would make more sense for us to buff up a little bit... Oh. TrueNeutral: 28 damage? How come I took more than anyone else? Calax: Weakling. Nepenthe: It's a good thing Tale made the save, or we'd have had to reload again. We proceed to get told off for blowing ourselves up. That requires a trip back to the Coronet to rest up, a couple of buffs, then try again. This time, the Stoneskin fires properly, with a harmless wild effect. This is critical to avoid another backstab-death. Meanwhile, Gorth uses the Called Shot ability (Archer kit) to make his bolts even deadlier. Pidesco quickly lobs a web spell at the centre of the enemy party, as our own members move out of the zone. I need to keep moving as a slaver cleric keeps following. A slight miscalculation: the powerful enemy archer (top left) is caught in the web, but so is Nepenthe, and the mage spawns some monsters in front of our spellcasters. I'm able to fire Vampiric Touch at least, and should be able to take care of the cleric. Sadly, Pidesco is backstabbed into oblivion. Pidesco: Why didn't I get any buffs?! The very next moment, I dispatch the cleric, and our Call Lightning fires properly. Nepenthe also breaks from the Web. The thief quaffs a potion of invisibility and disappears, but we are now in pretty good position. The archer remains webbed and we focus on the mage, but her protections still last. TrueNeutral retreats a little to heal himself, but a Chromatic Orb stuns him! Oh, TrueNeutral. If only there was something I could have done- TrueNeutral: I told you I can shapeshift! Oh, right. Sorry. Despite the two casualties, enemy numbers continue to drop, mainly due to Gorth machine-gunning them in the face. Soon, they are all dead... ...then about 3 turns afterwards, the thief pops up again. Heh. A costly two casualties, but we have quite a haul from that encounter. Bottom right is Arbane's Sword +2, a short sword making the wielder immune to hold; we also have a Plate Mail +1, lots of Arrows+1, and more. I've completely forgotten how many deaths the party members had, so I'm starting them at zero with the new BG2 campaign. 800 gold per member is acceptable at this point - although that puts us even further back from the 5,000 we need to get a magic user license. In fact, this update, we earned a total of ~5,000 gold, and spent ~4,000 on resurrections and the identification glasses. Nepenthe: Barely in black, I see. Next Update: We confront the man behind the circus, then... the De'Arnise Keep, perhaps?

Brain Damage is here, too. We are told that this inn is more than it seems. I can back this amazing intuition up with the fact that the area map shows a huge black area behind the back door. We talk the owner into letting us in. VIP, baby. First they let us in, now they want us out. Really, this won't do. Chunk, Nepenthe. Nepenthe: Chunk. Good boy. Oh, wait, there are more? A quick mirror image and chaos is sufficient to save my bacon. With 21 HP, I can't be too careful. Slavers, huh? Alright, I suppose slavers are rich, so killing them all should be profitable. The keys, we are told, are held by the Beastmaster, who apparently enjoys spending all day together with the beasts. I mean, come on. A man's life is not defined by his job, people. Chokepoints: intelligent, challenging, tactical IE combat at its best. (The sad thing is, this is actually true - who remembers when NWN1 came out, and terrible collision modeling meant creatures would eventually ooze past your fighters through the gateway?) Our reward is the Tuigan Bow+1, which goes to Pidesco. Pidesco: That made me so happy, I leveled up again! The rest is simple. Hendak chops Lehtinan's head off, then thanks us by giving us a discount at the Coronet. Finally, somebody else that levels up. Pity it's the dead weight. TrueNeutral: I told you, I can shapeshift now! Sorry, I keep forgetting to use that.

Oh, good. In Athkatla, XP comes to YOU. Now we're outside, TrueNeutral can do the one thing that makes him slightly better than useless: Call Lightning. It hits at periodic intervals after initial casting, too. On our way out of the Slums, we come across the Copper Coronet, a- Calax: A DEN OF INIQUITY AND EVIL! Well, yes. It's nice to see people keep volunteering to be turned into XP. This should be a cinch. Now, let me just get a stoneskin up, and- oh. How does a street thug make a 17 on a save? Get away from me! Stop it! It's not fair if you keep hitting me while I'm casting! Of course! The Ring of Human Influence... Now, you stand over there while I cast a spell. Cloudkill, maybe. Emotion, too. The thug takes a nice nap under the fumes, and expires. Ka-ching. In Athkatla, quests also come to you. Joinable NPCs, too. I guess I'll humour him... Whoa, okay. No, no thanks. (Trivia: I've played BG2 at least once a year since 2002, and I actually never picked up Aerie or Anomen until at least 2005, when I thought I should make sure to see all the content I missed out on. I wish I never did - although, Anomen's quests are pretty interesting.)

What is known? Nought but their names. The mage is Jon Irenicus. The girl is Imoen. I didn't do anything. He did it all. I had... Silence, child. Allow the fool to make his judgment. Why was this man not gagged? Did he not slay four of you? We dared not approach! Regardless, in the end, he came willingly. What should be done with them, sir? They are deviants. Let them rot in Spellhold. Meanwhile, we blow our entire load on the Glasses of Identification. They give us 3 identify charges a day, preparing us for the Monty Haul ahead.

Coo! Shut up and get on with it. Well, alright. You see, I can put you in touch with a group that can help you get to Imoen and Irenicus. But it be costing ye 20,000 in dough. So let me get this straight. You somehow know who I am, what I'm looking for, how I can get what I'm looking for, and you want me to pay you a very large amount of money. Coo! That it be. Alright, you got me. It's a pretty sweet racket you've got going here, and I can respect a well planned con. Coo! Well I'll be here, waiting for the money. Of course you will. Why bother doing any real work when you'll have 20,000 delivered to your doorstep? And thus we enter Chapter Two.

Coo! Hello, there. You'd be the one I be looking for. Tale be yer name, aye? No, no it's not. Coo! I think it be! No, it's not. ... Can I go now? Coo! You'd be the one I be looking for. Tale be yer name, aye? *sigh* Come on, I'll teleport you to my home, we can talk more there.

Kalah the Master Illusionist greets us. Gorth: He transformed all this, and then made himself an ogre mage? Seriously? Our last dispel magic, unfortunately, is interrupted. We're going to have to do this the hard way. We try and silence Kalah, but he makes the save. We summon a single dog to distract Kalah... Kalah: DOG? DOG? NO! BAD DOG! BAD! ...well. (In fact, I think the panic was from low HP, but the dog got the kill, regardless.) The gnome whines a little, and promptly expires, returning the circus to its primitive reality. Ohhhhh no. You are not coming with us, you sack of whine. The circus trip didn't net us much loot, but most significant is the Ring of Human Influence. I already have 19 charisma, of course, but the daily ability might come in useful. Gorth: Look, Tale, we saved the boy's mother too! Hurrah. (In the original game, that is where it all ends; Unfinished Business restores an additional segment where we can actually follow up on whoever it was that granted Kalah his powers. You all voted for the Planar Prison/Bard's Stronghold, but going there in SCS is suicide for now; we will follow this up, and a couple of other things, before that.) We can now use the World Map, where the great city of Athkatla is divided into 8 exciting sections- Hey, listen! Oh, ****. Just in case you needed some help, I've pointed you to the next place you should go to! It's called "Slums", and it's in bright blue outline! Lovely. Because that's where I want to go when I've just got out of a sewage-filled dungeon. The slums. Click on "Slums" now to go to the slums!