The Cloakwood Mines and Beyond

So, it had been a few days since I last played, and one of the last things I did last session was to pick up Faldorn.  As I started to load up Tutu today, I remembered I had done that and kind of groaned to myself.  I didn't like Kagain, so he got replaced...but did I trade up or trade down?  Granted, she had only been a member of the party for a very brief time, but she overwhelmingly struck me as boring, one-note, useless, etc.  And see last post about how we feel about holier-than-thou druids.  However, I convinced myself that I was too far in to go back for the dwarf, so I'd stick with Faldorn for now and at least give her a chance before I kicked her out.

And the mines were the mines.  Two major battles in there.  The first one was the second level banquet room, with the mage that casts Lightning and the dozens of Iron Throne guards and Black Talon Elites.  We managed to live through it, with a big thanks to Ajantis wearing the Boots of Grounding, and a strategic Web cast by Imoen.  The second one was Davaeorn...more on that later.

And I met Yeslick.  To be honest, this guy seems like the solution to my party woes right now.  So bear with me:  First of all, he has the same WIS as Faldorn, and I truly feel clerics have better spells the first couple of levels...he's a winner on that front.  Second, Kagain had profiency in two-weapon style, so he would wield two axes.  Yeslick has proficiency in sword-and-shield style, which means he will be better off using a shield +1 to subtract 2 AC and somewhat offset his terrible dwarvish dexterity (since Ajantis, with less HP and almost equal DEX, is still going to get the Gauntlets of Dexterity).  So there, good fit.  Faldorn helped for a little while, but I let her go.  She wanted to come to the mines, so she could freelance if she wants, but she's not part of the group anymore.  I do some armor rearranging (Ajantis goes back to wearing his ankheg armor), and now Yeslick is at -2 and the Green Paladin is at -3.

The third level wasn't much trouble.  We headed to the surface to rest halfway through it...out of healing spells and everyone's hurting.  I'm really not afraid of more troops coming to the mines in such a short time and discovering that everyone here related to the Iron Throne is methodically being killed.

We come back, and meet Davaeorn and the two battle horrors.  This was clearly the toughest battle of the mines, but again we managed to all survive it.  The mage and the two battle horrors all attacked at the same time.  Insect Swarm was a major help, as were consistently delivered Montaron-backstabs.  I believe I started this one off, as usual, with a Fireball from Imoen.  Ajantis and Yeslick took turns gulping potions, absorbing blows from the battle horrors, and making tactful retreats when things started to get out of hand.  Magic Missiles and Agannazer's Scorchers were tearing the air apart...and what's a good fight without Idaen the PC casting Doom and Chant?  I really don't remember all the details explicitly, but I know there was a little more involved...definitely ice arrows, at least.  Regardless, Davaeorn fell, then a battle horror, then another battle horror.

After learning about Davaeorn, and having most of my suspicions confirmed, I decided to flood the mines.  These were really Yeslick's mines in the end, and even he was behind the idea.  I realize that this might be the only mine pumping out supplies of ore these days, but A) Nashkel will get back on its feet pretty soon, and B) it seems much more important, especially after reading Davaeorn's letters, that the Iron Throne's plans need to be hindered as much as possible.  They are behind the region's iron problems, so anything that hurts them can only help the region.  And this will hurt them.

Of course, once I surface and am thanked for rescuing the slaves, I realize Faldorn was still down there.  I was planning to bring her up to the surface, but just forgot.  Maybe she was able to get out, but I don't know. Maybe her Shadow Druid friends will come looking for her washed-up body and resurrect her...again, I don't know.  It was unfortunate...and I won't be adventuring with her again any time soon.

Almost all of our inventories were at maximum capacity, so we emerged from the woods a couple of days and later and headed to Beregost.  We made a small fortune with all the magical items, jewels, and assorted treasure that we amassed in Cloakwood, as well as 2000gp from Kelddath Ormlyr for Coran's wyvern head.

After that, what's next?  Obviously Baldur's Gate is the next logical move, but I don't think it's the proper time to go storming in there, flails blazing.  I would like to let the past week or two sink in, digest.  The Iron Throne's plans are heavily delayed for now, but it doesn't mean they don't have other plots cooking.  And they may be expecting my group of "mercenaries" to come marching in right away, so I don't really want to do that either.

Of course, I promised Mendas in Ulgoth's Beard that I would head to an island for him with the purpose of protecting knowledge, lore, and history from the forces of greed and avarice.  And although I saved Aldeth Sashenstar's life, he rubbed me the wrong way, so I don't mind #$%!ing him over...plus, he's currently an ally to me and may make the job that much easier when I try to infiltrate the Merchant League.

I first traveled north to that tiny fishing village to make sure Mendas was still looking for the charts and that the merchant boat hadn't set sail yet.  My hunch was right...it had been around two or three weeks, and the guy was still telling me to hurry and get the charts.  I guess he was just saying that to try to light a fire, but it didn't really work.

When I was up in Ulgoth's Beard, I also stayed at the inn and bought some level 4 spells for Xzar, now that he's level 7 now (not bad).  Emotion and Greater Malison were the two he walked away with in his spellbook.

So that means I'm going to head into the big city and see what trouble I get myself into.  I'm really just planning to visit the Merchant League, deal with Mendas's island, then get back to the mainland and decide from there.  I have no idea what is going to take priority at that point.  Due to my long time avoidance of Beregost in my first weeks out of Candlekeep, I still have not explored High Hedge, Ulcaster, the Firewine Bridge ruins, a good portion of the coastline, and who knows what else.  And of course Durlag's Tower continually looms.  But like I said: for now, Baldur's Gate.  The party:

Idaen, lvl 6 cleric/lvl 6 ranger
Yeslick, lvl 5 fighter/lvl 5 cleric
Ajantis, lvl 7 paladin
Montaron, lvl 6 fighter/lvl 6 thief
Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 6 mage
Xzar, lvl 7 necromancer

The Cloakwood Journey and a Shadow Druid Alliance

We continued to march further on into Cloakwood.  The spider hive map was a little tricky, but I felt alright about it by the end.  I had Montaron lead, switching between hiding and detecting traps (after the first one almost causes death and disaster...luckily they were only huge spiders).  When he saw a group of spiders or ettercaps, he'd retreat and I'd have Imoen cast Fireball (or Xzar do something similar) while they were out of sight range.  They Monty comes and gets in a nice backstab, then it's have-at-'em with the tanks.  I know: a simplistic strategy, but it worked.

The hive/lair went generally smoothly, as well.  Another fireball maybe (we have a Wand of Fire now), raise some undead, cast Horror and the battle was over.  Ajantis is using Spider's Bane now.

Moved on to the next map.  We got waylaid by wyverns on the way there.  Not pleasant, at all.  What pained me was the poison-tipped barbs on their tails (or whatever).  The PC Idaen has Slow Poison as a skill, and I have him keep it memorized, too.  I also entered Cloakwood with each tank having two antidotes in their quickslot.  By the time I emerged from the spider map, I think only Idaen had an antidote left.  After we took care of these wyverns, there weren't any.  Oh, great...and I still haven't made it to the wyvern map yet (shhh...I don't know this yet...no metagaming!).

So I really don't know what these Shadow Druids are thinking.  At first, I try to be sly and intercept a message to the Iron Throne (I may be a ranger, but I don't automatically trust that a "protector of the forest"--might have him misquoted--is definitely an enemy of the Iron Throne).  This causes dude to attack my party, so he had to be put to rest.  I meet one or two more, but this time I finally understand they ARE enemies of the Throne, and I'm there to help.  Even met Faldorn, but just like Branwen from a week or two ago, she wouldn't really fit in the group (or would she...?  Stay tuned).

Next is Amarande.  Lecturing me about something or other nature.  As I said, I'm half-ranger, but I don't consider my character a violent environmentalist like this Archdruid here.  With my other half as a cleric, it's quite clear to me (being what I've coined a "superpriest") that nature, divinity, animals and humans, the deities, life, wisdom, the universe...it's all the same thing.  This guy is just acting like a squirrel in a tree...so you know what buddy? "Get out of my way."  Well, of course that was the nudge that pushed him off the deep end, and he forced us to kill him too.

Kept moving.  No return to civilization yet.  Montaron is running out of arrows, but that will probably work itself out at some point.  Got to the wyvern map and cleared out the nest.  Again, with two level 6 mages now, I have enough firepower to be formidable when I need to be...I usually just try not to use up all my spells in one encounter.

About to move on to the mines, the last area...when I start (uh-oh) thinking about the party.  Mostly about how I really don't like Kagain.  Sure he's a great fighter, a high master in axes, regenerates HP, and I should probably even keep him over Ajantis...but I just don't like him.  I figured I'd be stuck with him until I find another fighter...but do I even really need another fighter?  I was just talking about how magic users are making battles much easier these days...possibly add another caster (someone to complement Idaen...so he could tank more), and lose Kagain.  Hmm...it's too tempting an idea to not do it.

So I travel a ways back and invite Faldorn to the group, leaving Kagain in Cloakwood for a while.  He's sticking around, so I guess he's just going to live in the woods now, but who am I to judge?

16 Wis is not bad.  She has terrible fighting stats, but she's never going to really be fighting.  I don't even have a sling she could use as of right now.  Maybe I'm torn on this, I don't know.  I think we'll head into the mines and see what happens...it might turn out I like her less than Kagain, but at least the dwarf will be waiting there to re-invite

I head even closer to the mines.  After finishing up some scouting, I head right into the island encampment.  Drasus and his gang are waiting for us...but they get absolutely destroyed.  Chant and Protection from Evil, another Imoen fireball, some Wand of Fear action, Montaron with a sick backstab on one of the mages to kill him instantly, Faldorn contributing a Lightning, and then some good old fashion sling, bows, swords, and flails.  Overkill maybe, but I'm planning to rest up and re-memorize before we go in.  We barely lost any health, and now we're ready to camp out for the rest of the night, and then see what's lying beneath our feet.

Party:

Idaen, lvl 6 cleric/lvl 6 ranger

Ajantis, lvl 6 paladin

Montaron, lvl 5 fighter/lvl 6 thief

Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 6 mage

Faldorn, lvl 5 druid

Xzar, lvl 6 necromancer

Right on to Cloakwood, plus an NPC Update

I'll be up front right off the bat: not much has happened since last post.  I traversed the north-south road, but there wasn't anything too dangerous that we ran into.  Gibberlings, kobolds, the like.  We DID run into a few units of bandits, but they were easily dispatched, and too low-level to really have any information that I could use.  But at least we were able to clear the road as best as possible, before spending some time investigating Cloakwood.


We never really finished with the Nashkel carnival...couldn't believe it was actually still going on, to be honest.  But saw some black lotus users, the Amazing Oopah, and some kobolds on the outskirts.  I guess it's good to take it low-key a little bit before diving back into the major problems that are plaguing the area, and my group.  Oh yeah: now that I have some more money, I decided it was worth it to unpetrify the "stone maiden."  Surprise, it's Branwen.  There's nothing she really could have done for me...I couldn't lose any group members for a priest right now.  The two closest options for replacement would have been my two mages, Imoen or Xzar, but I'd rather have an excess of arcane over divine.  So I refused her services...she'll be waiting there, though.


I visited Durlag's Tower briefly before heading back up north.  Heard a lot of talk about it up in Ulgoth's Beard, which I guess is the economic center of the tower's tourism business.  Strange, it would seem to me it makes more sense to focus the tourism business in Beregost...more people, closer proximity...but what do I know?  I'm just an adventurer from Candlekeep.


So, either way, we try to get a look at it, just for the sake of it.  We run into the two battle horrors almost immediately.  Montaron got a nice backstab in, but my three tanks had lost more than half their health by the end of the conflict.  I feel like I could have operated better, but how?  I used a lot of spells, buffs, whatever.  Maybe they are just that difficult, but I feel like I need to come out of these tough battles ready for another one...this wasn't the case.  We rested and decided it wasn't worth it to pursue this any further, especially with everything else going on.  It's an intriguing place, to be sure...we can return here at some unknown point down the road.


So, to the Cloakwood forest.  A large Iron Throne base of operations is almost assuredly in here somewhere, and we just need to find it.  If we go straight to the Iron Throne with swords blazing, we will find something out.  What is their plot?  Why is iron such a concern to them?  What's their endgame?  And really, most importantly, what does it have to do with me and my band of adventurers?


The first area: I meet Coran.  I invite him to the group for a short amount of time to get more information about him.  He has +++ in long bows, and ++ in two-handed Swords.  His dexterity is very high...he's the dexterous, non-constituted version of Kagain.  However, he wouldn't fit into my group well.  Kagain has high mastery in axes, now, and is pretty damn good with them.  Sure, Coran's a little better than Montaron with the bow, but Montaron can detect traps and stealth around like no one's business.  Coran can pick locks better than him, but not better than Imoen will be able to, once she stops focusing on magery exclusively.  I forgot how many hit points he had, but his main role would be to tank...and if he doesn't have any proficiency in a melee fighting style, he's not going to be of great use.  So, as it turns out, I leave Coran on the bridge.  I may or may not try to make money with wyvern heads eventually, though.


What else?  I meet Aldeth Sashenstar.  I tell him I'll help defend him from the band of ruffians coming to kill him, because damnit, that sounds like he could be talking about chumps related to the Iron Throne.  In fact, it turned out to be a pack of druids.  I went for a peaceful resolution, but they weren't hearing it...and unfortunately we had to kill them all.  So it seems like this Sashenstar will owe me a favor now out of the Merchant League.  I should have asked him about the ship they were sending out to Mendas's island, but....it wasn't a dialog option?  I have been wondering about that ship.  Will it have set sail already by the time I'm able to get inside Baldur's Gate?  If that's the case, then it is what it is.  But like I said, I doubt the ports are open if the gate is closed.  Either way, I think I'm going to have to make that a priority after we emerge from Cloakwood, assuming something more important doesn't come up.


And that's it, more or less.  Now, before I go deeper into Cloakwood, I want to give an update on all of the NPCs I've encountered or not encountered so far.  So here's my party currently:


Idaen, lvl 6 cleric/lvl 5 ranger
Ajantis, lvl 6 paladin
Kagain, lvl 6 fighter
Montaron, lvl 5 fighter/lvl 6 thief
Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 6 mage
Xzar, lvl 6 necromancer


Permanently Dead:


Minsc.  He attacked us in Nashkel after we wouldn't let him join the group...
Safana.  Idaen was confused or charmed or something by a siren, and killed the innocent bystander Safana before anyone was able to talk to her.
Viconia.  We wouldn't help her, and she attached us.


Encountered/Gone:


Dynaheir.  We did not want to join with her at the gnoll stronghold, and she stormed off.
Edwin.  We didn't want to join with him either in Nashkel.  I think he said he would still be there, but I never saw him again.
Garrick.  We weren't going to be bodyguards for 50gp a piece, so he politely apologized and walked off.
Xan.  He returned to Evereska after being freed in the Nashkel mines.


Encountered/Still There:


Branwen.  Should still be hanging around the Nashkel carnival.
Coran.  Still hunting wyverns in Cloakwood.  I should be able to meet him on that bridge.
Jaheira.  I let her go when I realized she and Khalid weren't doing it for me...they should be resting still, at the Beregost temple.
Khalid.  See above.


Not Encountered:


Alora
Eldoth
Faldorn
Kivan
Quayle
Shar Teel
Skie
Tiax
Yeslick

Welp...

Ajantis, Ankhegs, and Magical Island Prisons

I wasn't looking for another tank for long.  As I said last post, I wanted to take the major roadway from the north to the south, being on the lookout for bandits and information about the Iron Throne.  So I head north and, as luck would have it, immediately run into the paladin Ajantis.  He happens to be trying to solve the bandit problem too.  A match made in heaven, it seems.  He's level 6, 45hp, and has ++ in two-handed swords and two-handed weapon style...not bad.  However, his dex is low...just like Kagain's.  I only have one pair of the Gauntlets of Dexterity, though.  Not too thrilled...someone's AC is going to suffer.  After some armor rearranging, I have full plate mail on Idaen, ankheg armor on Ajantis, and full plate mail and an amulet of protection +1 on Kagain.  He's only at 0 AC, though (Idaen at -2 and the paladin at -3).  I don't like this too much, since the plan is to have Idaen be the superpriest he's meant to be, not a primary tank.  I guess I will be on the lookout for another warrior indefinitely.  Until then, gotta make the most of it...and decide who I like better, the dwarf or Ajantis.

So...the north:

• We fought some ankhegs.  A lot of ankhegs.  I definitely went over my quota.  They can dish out damage, and Xzar was killed by one of the beasts.  But no problem: I'm not in a hurry.  It will take the bandits some time to re-mobilize and form a new base of operations, so I'm not on borrowed time.  That's not to say I don't intend to go to Cloakwood soon, because I do...but it's not going anywhere, and I'd like to get a first-hand experience of the bandit problem first if I can (am I being redundant about this?).
• Got involved with some fisherman and an Umberlant.  I confronted the priestess, and she told her side of the story.  Unfortunately she stayed hostile for some reason, and we had to kill her.  I let the fishermen know I wasn't too happy...but what did they care?  I walked off with another flail +1.
• Got denied from Baldur's Gate.  The bandits and Amn are still a problem, so the city's closed off right now.  I figured I would check it out to get the pulse of the city, but the gods of plotline were looking out for me.
• Cleared a farm of zombies.  Not much to it.  Can't really think of anything clever to say about this one...? (Other than "zombie apocalypse" is my favorite genre of fiction.)
• Headed to Ulgoth's Beard to visit.  The villagers here still seemed to be feeling some of the major problems that the rest of the coast was...but didn't care as much?  The biggest concern having to do with bandits seemed to be that the Durlag's Tower tourism business was hurting.  Also met Mendas and Shandalar.

And how interesting they were...I told Mendas that I would retrieve a chart from the Merchant League for him, but that's going to have to wait until some of the political turmoil dies down and the city opens back up.  He was telling me to hurry since the Merchants' ship was already being prepared...but I somehow doubt the ports are allowing free travel to and from the city during such a precipitous time...

And Shandalar wanted me to run an errand for him...and I did it.  I guess because of the way he knew something about me, it seemed like it would lead to some kind of answers.  And because the task itself seemed strange and intriguing.  But to not seem like too much of an errand boy, I at least made him wait a day or so...while I marched down to the Friendly Arm and resurrected Xzar.

I almost immediately knew we were in way over our head...when I saw we were on an ice island in the middle of nowhere.  We went inside and confronted the first group of mages...very, very difficult battle, one in which I had no business winning with a level 5ish party. [Sidenote: the PC died the first attempt, and I had to reload...again, that can't be a part of the narrative of this blog.  Why not?  I don't know.  It just can't.  In fact, there are (of course) a good number of times where the PC dies and I have to reload, but I'm only mentioning those moments sparingly.]  Xzar got fried by a Fireball, Montaron got Confused then Melfed, and Kagain...well, Kagain died too.  Somehow Idaen, Imoen, and Ajantis seemed to come out alive.  Looks like that's the group I'm stuck with now.  Let's see if we can't find this goddamn cloak and get the hell out of here.

So what was the strategy?  No way of detecting traps...so I used some magic protection potions and sent Ajantis or Idaen off to scout.  This is where the Boots of Grounding and potions of absorption came in handy too, for the lightning traps.  I got through the rest of the mages...no fight was as tough as the first one, though the ankhegs were pretty hard.  I had to rest a few times...Idaen ended up memorizing Miscast Magic (since Silence has been seemingly worthless lately) and multiple Raise Undeads (to have a nice battalion of skeletons), and Imoen memorized Invisibility for scouting purposes.

I spent a day and a half or so on that island, maybe a little bit longer...after I got the cloak, I went through and cleared the rest, since I probably wouldn't even have the chance to come here again...and hey, we're adventurer's, right?  Imoen doesn't have Identify, so I didn't even get a chance to see what powers Shandalar's cloak had.  I spoke to him immediately upon returning, and he took it from me.  Maybe I should have left and got it identified, maybe keeping it for my troubles...but too late.  So, this was a little odd...I'll come back here once I get the chart for Mendas, but let me head back down south and finish what I was supposed to be doing.

Idaen, lvl 6 cleric/lvl 5 ranger

Ajantis, lvl 6 paladin

Kagain, lvl 5 fighter

Montaron, lvl 5 fighter/lvl 6 thief

Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 5 mage

Xzar, lvl 5 necromancer

Yikes...two posts today.

Kagain, Some Spiders, and a Return to the Bandit Camp

With Jaheira still dead, we visited the temple in Beregost and received our reward for bringing Bassilus to justice.  I decided NOT to resurrect Jaheira.  As I've said in the past, I didn't really like her character, she was a very light back up healer, and couldn't do any real damage what with a club or a sling.  I needed to see how we could do with just two tanks.

Then we headed west into town.  This was my first time actually visiting Beregost during this playthrough, other than a brief night we spent in the Jovial Juggler a day or two after fleeing Candlekeep.  I finally visited the Thunderhammer Smithy (where I bought a set of full plate mail) and Feldepost's Inn.  I looked for Tranzig but he had gone by now...it had been two months give or take since we emerged from the Nashkel mines, I didn't think he would stick around forever...not to worry, though.  I already had all the information I was going to need.  Also ran into Garrick...but we're a little beyond becoming mercenaries for only 300 gold at this point, so he wandered away.

But then I stumbled upon a dwarf fighter named Kagain.  He was rough around the edges, obviously, and was clearly trying to rip us off.  HOWEVER, he worked with caravans so might have some good opinions on bandit tactics and overarching strategy.  Furthermore, and more importantly, he was another fighter, and I was looking to get rid of Khalid (I didn't like him either...something of a coward, and not that special of a character).  Plus, I didn't want to kick Jaheira out when she was dead, perma-killing her, so the only way to get rid of her would be to get rid of Khalid as well.

I told Kagain to stay put for a little while, while I headed back to the temple to resurrect Jaheira.  Once she was back in the world of the living, I let both the Harpers go.  They helped me out in the beginning, being Gorion's friends and all, but I have outgrown them and need to "find my own direction," as the text box prompted me to say.  Returned and welcomed Kagain.  20 CON, dual-wielding axes, drunk and stand-offish...whew.

So I went south to look for his caravan.  I remember seeing one where I encountered Brage, so we wandered back down south for about a week (I didn't remember what map I found Brage on).  Eventually I DID find the caravan wreckage...but no dialog from the dwarf.  Fine, this isn't the one.  My plan was to head back up the bandit camp to wreak some havoc, so that's what I'll do.  That's getting more to the source of the problem anyway, and Kagain might be able to find some answers up there.  I should have returned there as soon as possible...apparently I'm getting something of a name for myself, and it only takes a little good communication before the Chill and Black Talon leaders in the Woods of Sharp Teeth catch on that the mercenary group causing so many problems is the same one that was walking freely around the camp not too long ago (nevermind the ones who had gotten into a battle in Tazok's tent).

So on the trip up, I guess Kagain just gets tired of looking for the caravan and gives up.  Okay then, simple enough.  He's traveling with us now.  Whatever works.  Before the bandit camp, I clear out Larswood and the farm map to the east, to make sure there aren't too many contingents of bandits setting up there.  The farm map (I'll call it the "spider map") was a grim scene.  A Web trap, some poisonings, and a few nasty spiders were all it took to reduce the party by 40%.  I'm not sure what happened...Idaen (the only one with Slow Poison) and Montaron were caught in the web, and I ran out of antidotes pretty quick.  Oh yeah, Xzar got a little too close and got destroyed.  At the end of the battle, it was just Idaen, Montaron, and Imoen.  I took as much as their equipment and inventory we could carry, then continued to troop on to clear the rest of the map before we returned to a temple.

I then realized: this probably wouldn't have happened if we had another tank that could have taken some of the brunt of Kagain.  Also, more importantly, it would have delayed Idaen from heading out in the front lines so early in the fight which caused him to get caught in the trap.  He could have stayed behind, casted buffs, priest spells, druid spells, whatever, then entered the fray later.  Do I regret losing Khalid and Jaheira?  Not especially, because now that the two aren't paired up, I have more freedom with the NPCs that I do encounter.

So just the three of us continue to clear out the map.  After a little while, we run into a group of "red-robed posers."  Some kind of hostile mage cult.  Of course, this looks like a tough battle for just a cleric/ranger, a fighter/thief, and a thief>mage...but it's exactly this type of situation that leads me to memorize Silence every day.  I threw that out there, Imoen Charmed another one, and the battle was quite simple, especially since Montaron is very dangerous with a bow and arrow now.  They turned into just a quartet of really bad fighters with quarterstaves after that, and we cut through them like butter.

I got our two fallen comrades resurrected, then headed straight to the bandit camp.  Luckily, they had still not put two and two together, so it must have come as a surprise when I massacred the camp.  That should throw a wrench in their plans for a while.  I rested in the gnoll cave then headed south to clear out Peldsvale too.  Ran into a drow named Viconia but decided NOT to help her.  A.) My party's already evil enough, and I want to keep it somewhat balanced, and B.) at this point in the game, I am focusing on clearing out bandits, and if the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then my friend happens to be the law now.  Sure I'm good, but chaotic, remember?  I would have played True Neutral again this game, but it's not allowed with a ranger.

Sidebar:  So I chose to play Chaotic Good instead of Neutral Good.  I think Chaotic Good is closer to True Neutral than Neutral Good is.  Agree?  They kind of balance each other out.  I also think Lawful Evil is closer to True Neutral than Neutral Evil is.  Now the question is, are CG and LE closer to TN than Chaotic Neutral and Lawful Neutral?  Hmm...

Alright...so now I'm going to walk up and down the road looking for bandits.  I cleared out the bandit camp, so that's going to be something of a stop-gap for a little while, to help out the merchants, farmers and citizens. I want to further this by also helping make the roads safer, even if this is just a temporary fix.  Obviously Cloakwood is calling, but in time...I want to find out as much as I can first about the bandits, as I've stayed out of the major roadway for most of this game so far, and haven't traveled much further north than the Friendly Arm Inn.

Idaen, lvl 5 cleric/lvl 5 ranger
Kagain, lvl 5 fighter
Montaron, lvl 5 fighter/lvl 5 thief
Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 4 mage
Xzar, lvl 5 necromancer

Oh yeah, I have Idaen dual-wielding now.  Maybe it was a mistake to put a + in sword and shield style, but it's too late now.  He's got a flail +1 and Bassilus's warhammer +2 in the offhand.

Marching North, and a Semi-Accidental Infiltration

We took care of the gnoll stronghold pretty handily.  Rescued Dynaheir, but I had to spurn her.  The group was full.  Sure, she could have replaced Xzar, but I need Montaron.  She might have been a replacement for Khalid or Jaheira, but if they both left I would have been left too light on tanks.  Imoen may or may not be the weakest link in the group right now, with Monty having all of the useful, dungeon-crawling type skills, but I could not justify leaving her by herself in an abandoned, rotting fortress in the middle of nowhere.  In another world, I would start thinking about getting rid of her somehow...but I have plans.  See below.

Also, Dyanheir's "guardian" Minsc attacked me several weeks ago, and we had to kill him.  So I'm not too keen about having that eventually coming up in an awkward conversation.  I called her a witch, she trotted off to do her thing, and we continued on our way to do ours.

We went back to Nashkel to restock again.  There are still some areas in the southwest I would like to explore, but I believe we're naturally coming to the stopping point for all of this.  It's been about 40 or 45 days now, so I decided to rest in the inn (especially since Xzar and Montaron were complaining).  My plan was this:  hit up the final couple of areas in the southwest on the way to Candlekeep, where I know scimitars are sold for Jaheira.  With the Gauntlets of Dexterity, she's now at AC -3 (Idaen is at -2 and Khalid's at -1)...and after I realized a club actually does more damage than a sling and bullets, I started having her tank on the front lines with Khalid and the PC.  BUT, I gave her a + in scimitars, and they do more damage than clubs, so I'd like to find her one.  I know that I won't be able to get into Candlekeep, but my character doesn't...no metagaming here, so we're going to go up there and try to get in.  If that didn't work, I was going to head east, then swing north up to the Friendly Arm Inn and see if scimitars are sold there (and check out what else they have for sale...I have a suspicion that our experience has outgained some of our equipment...).

Plans have a way of going awry, though.  We ran into Bassilus the mad cleric and his small legion of undead.  I remember hearing something about him weeks ago from Kelddath Ormlyr (when I was getting Xzar or Montaron resurrected).  I had Idaen turn undead which sent most of the skeletons/zombies running.  Xzar hit Bassilus with a Chromatic Orb, blinding him, so I thought I was safe for the time being.  However, the cleric was still able to get out an Entangle.  Jaheira got caught up, and just started taking dozens and dozens of arrows to the grill...and she was gone.  The rest of us survived, but now we're down a member.  She's not perma-gone, so I can still resurrect her...but dead is dead, and it's not my duty to bring people back.  I will see how we do with the five of us for now, and maybe another character will come along that fills a better role.  Idaen can handle all of the divine spellcasting (cleric and druid spells plus 18 wisdom...I see him as a "superpriest" who can double as a tanker)...so possibly I'm just looking for another fighter so he can focus on that.

Furthermore, Imoen hit level 6, so I decided to dual-class her to a mage.  Maybe it's not a great idea to lose an arrow-slinger right after we lost a tank...but hey, we've got a sling and some bullets that Jaheira was holding on to that Imoen can use now.  Imoen was about 80 in opening locks and about 65 or so in detecting illusions...these will be nice bonuses that come back when she hits level 7 mage, right around the 80k exp point.  This ALSO makes Montaron that much more invaluable now, so it seems the Zhentarim have carved out a nice spot for themselves in the group.  Can't say as much for the Harpers...

So we went up to Candlekeep, and got barred from entry.  Alright.  Next stop: FAI.  Unfortunately, they didn't have much of anything to sell, either.  I guess my plan now is to go to Beregost (the temple first), see what items I can buy there for my crew.  I have about 14k in gold to spend.  I decided to take the long way, through Larswood.  You know, we've been down in the south so long, it wouldn't hurt to get acclimated to these northern areas, see what's the same, see what's different, etc.  But within minutes of entering the Woods of Sharp Teeth, I was approached by a huge contingent of bandits. Recalling the advice that Drizzt gave me a few days earlier, I decided not to fight, but to use words and guile to get the real story behind these bandits.

Next thing I know, I'm proving myself to Tazok, and have free run of the bandit camp.  Jeez...this was almost by accident.  I was holding off hunting down Tranzig, but I guess I just completely cut him out of the picture.  We wandered over to the big guy's tent after getting acquainted with some of the important players in this saga, dispatched of some other important players, and had an interesting conversation with an Ender Sai.  Combining that with the notes I found in the chest, I have a solid plan of action now (and was launched into the next chapter).

Answers to some major questions are going to be in Cloakwood.  This is going to be the inevitable direction, but are we ready for it yet?  First things first: I want to head to Beregost and stock up on some better equipment.  I know it's a merchant town and there could be some very useful weapons and armor there.  After that, it's time to deal with these bandits.  The Sword Coast is troubled, and whether we like it or not, it's our group's responsibility now to fix these problems.  I'll wait and see what we get into in town, but after that, I'm going to clear out all of Peldsvale, Larswood, and then return with a vengeance to the bandit camp.  I'll probably walk up and down the main road running through the coast, too, just "taking care" of bandit problems.  After that, who knows?  Might try out the Firewine Bridge/Ulcaster region, or just go straight to Cloakwood.

Idaen, lvl 4 cleric/lvl 4 ranger
Jaheira, lvl 4 fighter/lvl 4 druid (DEAD)
Khalid, lvl 5 fighter
Montaron, lvl 4 fighter/lvl 5 thief
Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 2 mage
Xzar, lvl 5 necromancer

The Lighthouse and Other Adventures in the Southwest

We're still down in the south, far away from any civilization.  After we took care of that little problem in Nashkel, we almost immediately hit the wilderness.  Right now, my ragtag group has been kicking around between Nashkel to the east, the Sea of Swords to the west, the Cloudpeaks and Amn to the south, and High Hedge to the north.  Like I said last post, it's probably been almost a month since the last time we even stayed at an inn.  We've heard a little of the political talk involving Baldur's Gate and Amn, but nothing that seems relevant to our day-to-day tasks.  We don't even really know how our escapade in the mines affected the iron shortage situation.

That being said, we are becoming full-fledged adventurers, even though we're just wandering around in the wilderness more or less; I guess this is our occupation, now.  That doomsayer battle was something of a coming-of-age.  Soon after it, we headed northwest to the lighthouse area.  In almost no time, we ran into Sil and about seven other sirens on the beach over the course of two or three confrontations.  I won't lie; these were some sloppy battles.  Either Confusion or Dire Charm kept being cast on Idaen or Khalid, which put the weaker members of the party in lethal risk.  Luckily, we managed to clear the coast without losing any group members.  This happened with a strategy revolving around Xzar casting Web, Idaen and Jaheira casting buff spells and Doom, Imoen's stash of fire arrows, and a monster summoning or two.  It wasn't pretty, but it somehow worked.  Unforunately, while Idaen was confused, he wandered into a woman named Safana in the wilderness and smacked her with his flail +1 before any of us could talk to her...she became hostile and our only option was to kill her (there goes another NPC...).

Next was a cave full of flesh golems.  I knew we couldn't handle it after one of them took half of Khalid's life in one hit, then immediately followed it up with another hit for half of Idaen's life.  We fled out of the cave and kept running until we lost the hideous thing somewhere outside.  (To be honest, my PC kept dying after a few attempts at the cave, so I decided it wasn't worth it...of course reloads can't be a part of this blog's wonderfully consistent narrative.)  I'm going to head back to that cave at some point in the future, if I don't forget...I'm sure there's some worthwhile treasure in there.

We took care of the rest of the area, including rescuing a woman's son from a pack of worgs and running into a palm-reader that had a bizarre reaction after reading Idaen's palm.  A large armored figure had tried to abduct him, he's well-known among outlaw bounty hunters, and now this woman saw something horrifying in his past.  It's becoming readily apparent there is something unique and frightening about him, but he and the rest of the party don't know what it is...this is almost more of a reason to stay out in the wilderness, but sooner or later we will have to head back up north to face these questions head-on.  But not yet.

So I decided we would head to the the gnoll fortress in the far southwest.  I believe we can handle it now, and we will be doing a service for the entire Sword Coast by ridding the place of those vermin.  We returned to Nashkel one more time to sell some jewels and restock on ammo...in and out in the middle of the night.  We battled several small groups of ogres, ogre berserkers and the like, but eventually wound up on the one rickety bridge into the stronghold.  Cleared out the ridges and caves to the south, and prepared ourselves to storm the place...

That's where I'm at now....during this whole time, I've been thinking about my party, and my general dissatisfaction with it.  Khalid has been doing alright, and has the most HP of the group with 41, but he seems to take a lot of damage, and frankly I just really don't care for his attitude or personality.  Okay, so he's a coward who's scared to do anything?  Awesome, great character.  And Jaheira's doing alright too, but if she were to go, what would I really be missing? A few heal spells, a sling, and a club?  Pfft.  Idaen could carry that load.  And I don't like her much, either, with her holier-than-thou attitude about nature.  She hates cities, mines, Xzar and Montaron, everything.  Hey, I'm half-ranger too...can we take it down a notch?

Montaron is at a pitiful 20hp.  I finally took him off tank duty when I got a long bow for him, and he's been getting more skilled at hiding in shadows, moving silently, and detecting traps.  Imoen has been focusing on opening locks and detecting illusions.  So without another thief, I really need to keep Montaron around...which is fine.  Once he gets one more + in long bows, he'll be incredibly valuable.  Xzar, on the other hand, is driving me crazy.  He fails to copy almost every scroll we find...he's been relying on Color Spray and Larloch's Minor Drain almost exclusively, which translates into staying behind and throwing darts almost every enemy encounter.  However, Xzar goes hand-in-hand with Montaron, so I guess I need to stick with him for the present.  He recently learned Burning Hands and Chromatic Orb, so that could begin to make a difference.

But I'm thinking about dualing Imoen to a mage for all of these reasons, once she hits level 6.  As long as Monty's around, her thief skills can be out of a commission for a little while...and I would love to have a 2nd mage around to complement (supplement?) the mad necromancer.  She's at about 15 or 16k, so this decision will have to made soon...

Aaaannyways...I may get another post out by the end of the weekend about the gnoll stronghold.  Here's my paty now:

Idaen, lvl 4 cleric/lvl 4 ranger
Khalid, lvl 4 fighter
Jaheira, lvl 4 fighter/lvl 4 druid
Montaron, lvl 3 fighter/lvl 4 thief
Imoen, lvl 5 thief
Xzar, lvl 4 necromancer

West of Nashkel

But first...east of Nashkel.  I returned to the site of the ambush when we had first left the mines, after killing Mulahey.  The group of four women were still there.  This time, with Silence and with more hit points, we took care of them with no problem.  Also, this is the first I've heard of the Iron Throne...they probably have a good amount to do with everything, but who knows, right?

I still don't have much of a plan of action.  The next logical move is Tranzig and Beregost, but I still don't think it's the right time for that.  These southern plains are starting to feel like home; we haven't stayed at an inn once since before we entered the mines.  There's a lot to explore, and we need to be able to call ourselves bona fide adventurers without any eye-rolling.

So we marched to the large expanse of land between the sea and Nashkel and started turning over some rocks to see what would pop up.  After we exhaust this region, there's not a whole lot more we can do anywhere this far away from civilization, so let's enjoy it while it lasts.  We wandered around, decimated an entire xvart village, battled ogres, cave bears, skeletons...but mostly gnolls.  A LOT of gnolls.  Also ran into Brage...we cured his insanity through the answering of a simple riddle, then brought him back to the Temple of Helm so he could begin his lifetime of atonement.

I decided to have Montaron become proficient in long bows..his hit point rolls have been poor to say the least, and he's really going to be more effective long term if he can become useful with a ranged weapon.  I wish he hadn't started specialized in sword and shield style, but what are you gonna do.

Eventually I stumbled upon a suspicious archaeological excavation project.  What they were doing seemed interesting, so I told a Mr. Charleston Nib that I would stand guard for him while he delved into the long-hidden chambers.  But as soon as we entered, things took a turn for the worst.  Immediately the workers became agitated and started to attack our party; Xzar sent in a Color Spray, but it only served to knock Nib unconscious and convince him we were enemies.  After easily disposing of the workers, we had to take care of their boss, unfortunately.  We took a fairly large reputation hit for that, but I suppose it will make Xzar and Montaron more comfortable with the group.  With no information, we grabbed the idol and got out of there.  But wait: a doomsayer was waiting for us outside.  This was probably the hardest battle that we've faced in the month since I left Candlekeep, but there was no way around it.  Idaen casted Doom and Chant, Montaron chugged a strength potion, and Xzar used a wand to summon a trio of ogres and a pack of dire wolves.  It was a long struggle, but the ogres were able to land some solid blows.  The three of us meleeing took turns stepping away and being healed, returning to the thick of things when I was confident that they could take at least one solid blow without dying.  All in all, the strategy was successful and we were 4000xp richer by the end.

Idaen, lvl 4 cleric/lvl 3 ranger
Khalid, lvl 4 fighter
Montaron, lvl 3 fighter/lvl 3 thief
Jaheira, lvl 3 fighter/lvl 3 druid
Imoen, lvl 4 thief
Xzar, lvl 3 necromancer

On a side note:  I experienced a very strange bug that forced a reload.  A dialog began between Jaheira and Xzar began which would initiate the Zhentarim-Harper duel-to-the-death.  Alright, fine.  I knew what I was getting into when I invited all these people to the group, and I was actually kind of looking forward to it.  It would have allowed me to naturally fill the party with some new NPCs.  However, right as the dialog was going on, I received a phone call and had to take it.  While I was on the phone, I let the game linger on the last dialog line without ever hitting "end conversation" (or whatever).  15-20 minutes later, I return to the game and click it.  The four NPCs' circles go gray/purple, but they just stand there.  No one attacks, but I can't control them.  I tried resting/zoning/talking to them/kicking them out and trying to get them back in...but nothing.  In fact, the first time I clicked rest, it triggered Khalid to attack Montaron...but Montaron, Jaheira, and Xzar still just stood there being unresponsive.  Real weird.  I reloaded to right before the dialog, but it didn't spring up again.

Into the Cloudpeaks

So we started our exploration of northern Amn, in the land at the base of the Cloudpeak Mountains.  I figured that as long as we decided to be out in the wilderness, away from the prying eyes of society, then it would be best to get a far away as we could from Beregost, Baldur's Gate, the whole Sword Coast.  Problems are looking for us up there, but as long as we're in Amn we may luck out and not run into trouble that's over our head.

And for the most part, it didn't.  We explored most of the area south, southwest, and southeast of Nashkel.  We didn't quite get to the Gnoll Stronghold yet...there's no reason for us to get in too deep over that way, especially when the goal of the next few weeks is to just lay low and gain experience.  We raided a few tombs, met a dryad, got some nice loot, and generally did some low-key adventuring...financing the majority of our equipment upgrades with winter wolf pelts that we would sell when we would return to town.

The party came back to Nashkel twice or so to sell goods, restock on ammunition, buy some large shields +1 and platemail, and most importantly, resurrect fallen members.  We are still a low-level group that is going through some growing pains.  Montaron was initially killed by one of the largest herds of gibberlings that I had ever seen.  Khalid also died battling a pack of flinds.  There were some bumps in the road, but we're beginning to look like something you could call adventurers.  In the end, a large majority of the southern areas have been explored and rightful experience has been gained.  My next move is to return to the area surrounding the alternate mine entrance, and see if I can find that group that first attacked me almost two weeks ago.  Now that Idaen is a level 3 cleric, I now have access to Chant, Hold, and Silence.  Xzar also has a Wand of Monster Summoning at his disposal, so that both those things could prove to be a big help, especially coupled with the increased levels of the party:

Idaen, lvl 3 cleric/lvl 2 ranger
Khalid, lvl 3 fighter
Montaron, lvl 2 fighter/lvl 3 thief
Jaheira, lvl 3 fighter/lvl 3 druid
Imoen, lvl 4 thief
Xzar, lvl 3 necromancer

The First Dungeon

We progressed deeper into the Nashkel mines. Remember, I made almost a direct line down here as soon as we picked up Jaheira and Khalid. My group is far from anything remotely "experienced." We are all level 1, except Jaheira (2/2). During encounters, I've been having her stay behind the line with a sling (better than a club), while Imoen uses her short bow. The front line is Idaen with a morning star and a shield, Khalid dual-wielding two bastard swords, and Montaron with a small sword and a shield. Xzar generally stays behind and does absolutely nothing.

This really complex battle plan was unsurprisingly less-than-successful in the mines. Between the kobolds and the kobold commandos, Imoen was killed on the third level. After that, the group slowly widdled down...Khalid and then Xzar were the next two to go, also on the third level. I had to return to the surface once to rest, heal, and re-memorize spells. Wow...I really am not prepared for the Nashkel mines, the easiest dungeon in the entire saga...maybe I should have spent some time in Beregost first.

Jaheira, Montaron and the PC were actually doing well for a while. I gave Jaheira her club to use, and we were just three meleers going at it. Sadly, Montaron took a few too many fire arrows to the gut as we approached the fourth level, and also died. After that I decided to retreat for some time. I wasn't willing to go further through the dungeon with no thief, and with only two of us still alive, so it was decided that Idaen and Jaheira would head back to Nashkel to resurrect the characters we could, rest, and return at slightly better strength.

...and that's what almost happened. We were waylaid by half-ogres on our way back, and they managed to kill Jaheira...we were tired, on the run, and outnumbered. I returned to Naskhel having lost 5 of my 6 party members. It must have looked like a grim, stark scene to any onlookers. But not to give up...we made too much headway to turn back now, and Berrun Ghastkill was still expecting answers. At the Temple of Helm, Khalid, Imoen, Montaron, and Jaheira rejoined me. I let Xzar linger in the netherlife for a while longer. He wasn't helping much in the mines, and is too much of a liability at 4hp. We rested for 16 hours to regain full strength, then left south for the second time in a couple days.

No kobolds had returned to the mines, so that's a relief. We didn't have any trouble clearing the fourth level out, then headed down further. Took it very slow, very quiet, looking for the traps the whole way, and eventually met an elf named Xan. He was investigating the mining problems as well, but was captured and held against his will...he offered to join with us, but we were full, so I sent him on his way. Next was Mulahey, and this turned out to be a long, fierce battle, owing most to the horde of kobolds and skeletons that seemed to come out of the wall. But, we came out alive, and found out more about this gentleman's organization. Even pointed to someone named Tranzig staying in Beregost.

We didn't leave the mines the same way we came in, and ended up out somewhere east of Nashkel. A pack of wild dogs attacked us; the five of us were mostly at half-health, and before I knew what was happening, they ripped Jaheira to shreds. This is now the second time she's died. I had tried retreating back into the mines, but the path was blocked off. Damn...what a way to go.

It was the morning and we camped out and rested for the day. As soon as the late afternoon came, we began our journey back west. I wanted to get a quick look around the surrounding area, but very quickly we ran into a group of four women that immediately began to attack us. I saw flame arrows, and at least two mages, and knew immediately we would die if we stayed to fight. We fled, but I want to know who these attackers were.

Back in town, it seemed like the mayor and commoners were appropriately satisfied. I resurrected and welcomed back Jaheira and Xzar, the headed to the inn to rest some more and figure out our next move. Hmm, a man named Nimbul attacks...the Amnish guards help dispose of him and we find another letter from Tazok, this one specifically requesting our deaths...

So what to do? I had six group members die in the adventure in the mines, and I don't think I'm ready to be confronting any sinister organization right now, especially in busy, crowded places. Nimbul was sent to attack us because of what we did in the mines, and they knew we were in Nashkel...right now, I'm thinking the best plan is to head southeast towards the mountains and stay out of the populated areas until we gain more experience and maybe figure out what is going on. Maybe those women that attacked the group know something? But I doubt we can take them on at this point.

So we got out of the city as soon as we could, and headed south again. I might get some more information by luring some more bounty hunters out in the open? They haven't been a terrible challenge so far, and I know Prism was talking about one...unfortunately he is too focused on his work and I can barely even speak to him. Welp, I guess that's that. I head east, camp again, and prepare to spend some time out in the wilderness.

My party:

Idaen, lvl 2 cleric/lvl 1 ranger

Khalid, lvl 1 fighter

Montaron, lvl 1 fighter/lvl 1 thief

Jaheira, lvl 2 fighter/lvl 2 druid

Imoen, lvl 2 thief

Xzar, lvl 1 necromancer