Let's Play: Baldur's Gate Trilogy - Ch26 (Mae'Var)

[Blarghagh]

Also, I'm happy to take suggestions on what sidequests/areas you'd like to see first/next.

 

I've always enjoyed the Planar Sphere, Firkraag's Quest and the d'Arnise Keep but honestly my first stop is always the circus to kill that goddamned gnome and steal his items. They're quite nice for how ridiculously easy that section is. Plus, I get to stab an ogre in the face in the full knowledge of who it really is.

[Enoch]

Clearly, the first priority needs to be acquiring the Human Skin armor, and modding it so that Tale can wear it.

 

 

I'm probaby a bit late, but I would not object to being exhumed to once again show these youngsters how it's done.

[Nepenthe]

Ah, the joy of being the person who triggers the traps. Would mages not be able to far better protect themselves from trap damage? Or even the mighty Trueneutral, at least, has regeneration in his werewolf form.

I thought I was supposed to say that?

 

Anyway, great to see you back in the saddle Tigs, looking forward to more misadventures. I'd like to see the bard stronghold quests, if that is doable with your mods.

[Gorth]

Yeah, I thought Nepenthe had the dubious honour of playing Nodwick (for those who knows the web comic)

 

Hmm, I've never actually killed the ogre in the circus tent. It probably tastes like chicken...

[BBMorti]

Ah, the joy of being the person who triggers the traps. Would mages not be able to far better protect themselves from trap damage? Or even the mighty Trueneutral, at least, has regeneration in his werewolf form.

I thought I was supposed to say that?

 

Anyway, great to see you back in the saddle Tigs, looking forward to more misadventures. I'd like to see the bard stronghold quests, if that is doable with your mods.

I second that the bard stronghold would be interesting, but it has been the end of a fair amount of solo no-reload runs I have seen from veterans (the scs version that is)

Were I playing one of those runs myself I would have skipped it for a bit, but that doesn't mean I wont second the suggestion to go there for this run, especially since I am on the waiting list

[Enoch]

I second that the bard stronghold would be interesting, but it has been the end of a fair amount of solo no-reload runs I have seen from veterans (the scs version that is)

Were I playing one of those runs myself I would have skipped it for a bit, but that doesn't mean I wont second the suggestion to go there for this run, especially since I am on the waiting list

As I understand it, Tigs hasn't been doing a pure "no-reload" run. He reloaded in event of Bhaalspawn death in BG1. And he's trying to be entertaining more than he's trying to prove was a l33t g4m1ng b@d$$ he is.

[Tigranes]

We have a 3-death rule (each party member is resurrected twice, then replaced), but hard-coded Bhaalspawn rules mean we can't do that with Tale - so, we reload. If the entire party is wiped, or Tale dies and we had very little chance of surviving, it would constitute a game over. But my intent is not to powergame and really work the mechanics - I'm already letting you guys pick my party, and I don't think that kind of stuff really works well with LPs. It's just a nice way for us to have some tension, and to keep on rotating the cast. I certainly don't need to cheese much at this difficulty.

[Azure79]

Good stuff. Please make my character an arrogant douchey kensai who thinks he is the greatest weapon fighter in the world. In fact he is so sure of himself that his weapon of choice is a dagger. Pure kensai all the way. I predict a swift end.

 

I'd like to see De'Arnise Keep since it has a fair challenge with the trolls and Umberhulks as well as some yuan-ti mages.

 

Looking forward to reading this through Christmas vacation!

Edited December 21, 2012 by Azure79

[Tale]

He's not Chaotic Evil, he's just misunderstood!

[Gorth]

I say, get Daystar and then off to Umar hills and shine a bright light on those pesky shadows!

[BBMorti]

I second that the bard stronghold would be interesting, but it has been the end of a fair amount of solo no-reload runs I have seen from veterans (the scs version that is)

Were I playing one of those runs myself I would have skipped it for a bit, but that doesn't mean I wont second the suggestion to go there for this run, especially since I am on the waiting list

As I understand it, Tigs hasn't been doing a pure "no-reload" run. He reloaded in event of Bhaalspawn death in BG1. And he's trying to be entertaining more than he's trying to prove was a l33t g4m1ng b@d$$ he is.

 

 

 

CTRL + Q to Enable/Disable GoPhoto.it

I didn't mean to suggest he was doing a pure No-Reload run, it was just a close example that came to mind. No idea what your last sentence is about, I know of no No-Reloaders who does it for any kind of gaming cred, it is a personal challenge that they enjoy and, I'm sure, find very entertaining themselves.

 

What Gorth really means, is rush for the bard stronghold *shifty eyes*

[Tigranes]

19. Profit Margins

Click Here for Table of Contents

 

Free from Irenicus, our first task is shopping. All of our equipment, it seems, has been sold off to fund the mage's sci-fi harems and poorly constructed traps-

 

Nepenthe: Oh, they were very well constructed.

 

-so we need an upgrade. We're pretty short on gold, of course, so we must be selective.

 

Did you know that speaking to townspeople can earn you tips about available sidequests?

Yes, yes I did.

Would you like a large, shiny arrow pointed towards your next quest objective, so that you don't need to remember anything or use the map?

No. Can I turn you off, or something?

Alright. Don't worry, if you change your mind, I'll check with you again in 8 minutes!

 

Looks like 'prudent shopping' just turned to 'no shopping'. We're going to have to earn some dough.

 

By earn, I mean engage in socially accepted forms of pillaging. Apparently a circus has gone haywire.

 

Listen, kid. I doubt you can help me here, the Robe of Vecna costs 22,000 gold pieces.

 

Gorth: You've changed, Tale. You used to be so helpful to Commoners in Distress.

Tale: Back then, I was adventuring. Now? Now, I have a purpose.

 

The circus turns out to be pretty nice inside. Nice architecture. Whoever is inside is clearly a master of illusions.

 

Our first obstacle is a riddle, which presents no real difficulty. The answer is...

 

Pidesco levels up. The experience of solving a riddle has granted him new insights in the ways of Fighting.

 

An orc with a hideous voice and even worse fashion sense begs us for help, but we don't really have time for you.

 

Nor for you, pixelated boobs. We're here for gold and XP.

Nepenthe: Are you sure we don't have time for-

Calax: Yeah, Tale, I think we could all take some time to-

Pidesco: I might level up from this!

TrueNeutral: Wait, are we all going at once, or taking turns? Because whoever goes last-

Nepenthe:Uh, alright. I guess we're moving on.

 

The next room features a formidable cast of werewolves and shadows. I try to cast mirror image, but entangle myself instead.

 

A Dispel Magic is sufficient to destroy most of the illusions. (I don't know if Bioware put these guys in here to teach players about debuffs and dispels - if so, pretty clever.)

[Tigranes]

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!

[Tigranes]

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.

[Tigranes]

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.

[Tigranes]

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.

[Tigranes]

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.)

[Tigranes]

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.

[Tigranes]

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?

[Gorth]

With friends like Tale doing the buffing, who needs enemies

[Deraldin]

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.

 

 

Gorth, Nepenthe and TrueNeutral were all on 2 deaths!

 

Death count was on page 15 (post 292) and True Neutral's second death was on part 15 (post 326).

 

I knew I should have reposted that death counter before this got started. >_>

Edited December 22, 2012 by Deraldin

[Calax]

I feel like this needs a BOOSH but I'm not sure.

 

Boosh being at about 4 minutes into this

 

 

they do that about four times in the game.

[Azure79]

Don't worry Deraldin. I'm sure with SCS, the deaths will come swiftly.

 

DeArnise sounds good. Flail of Ages and that longbow will come in handy. Will we ever see a shapeshift occur? The suspense!

[Blarghagh]

I've completely forgotten how many deaths the party members had, so I'm starting them at zero with the new BG2 campaign.

 

Oh thank God, I was afraid I'd be out before ever getting to shapeshift - actually, I predicted I'd die before getting out of Irenicus Dungeon so I already made it longer than I expected.

 

Still, BG2 has such an amount of difficult encounters still in store that the best I'm hoping for is a single Shapeshift. Truly a gimped class. Actually, I don't know, is the version you're using with the fixed ruleset? Then I might actually be able to carry, not my own, but maybe half of my own weight.

 

Also, I'll get you yet Calax. Calling me a weakling!

Edited December 22, 2012 by TrueNeutral

[Deraldin]

Also, I'll get you yet Calax. Calling me a weakling!

 

I now have this image of TrueNeutral hitting the three death limit but somehow appearing several missions later after being mysteriously raised from the dead so that he can hunt down Calax and show him who the real weakling is now that he's hit 14th level.