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