This time, north to Ulgoth's Beard. Mendas was pleased to finally have his charts, and he booked us a vessel right there on the spot. We travel a "score" of days (ah, that's twenty...let's say three weeks) and the ship sinks in a storm. Oh, but let me pause for a second...those days were not counted in the total on the save game screen/journal/anything else. I really don't like that...I guess my only choice is to add on 42 days or so in my head to whatever day-count the game gives me. Imperfect solution...damn.
Anyways, I'm sure that most readers of this blog know the story (but actually my first playthrough of it), but here it goes anyway: After we washed up on shore, we realized pretty quickly that this was indeed the island we were looking for. The villagers seemed real strange...I assumed it had to do with the inbreeding finally catching up to them. Two hundred people is NOT an adequate population to maintain healthy genetic diversity...but I digress.
But if my only way off this island is to clear the northern part of it of the wolfweres, then that's what I have to do. And they're tough, it turns out...they hit hard. Almost lost Ajantis in the first encounter. Resistant to magic, too, but not resistant enough to defeat a party with two high level mages.
We wiped out all of the wolfweres on the surface of the island, resting on the southern side of the island when it was necessary. Met Dradeel, who was able to shed a little more light on the interesting circumstances of the island, and Balduran's final voyage.
Everything got a little more difficult when we entered the ship. The whole ship, infested with wolfweres. Yeslick fell in battle on one of the upper levels. Hated to see it happen, but I guess I'll see him on the mainland. So now it's just the five of us, confronting Karoug and his woman. This battle was difficult like the rest. I was able to have Montaron scout ahead, so we were able to pre-buff (including Haste...which frustratingly doesn't work for Spider's Bane-wielding Ajantis), raise undead, and summon some monsters. When the battle started, we took out the mage first, quickly and decisively. Xzar casted Emotion, which was a real help...took two of the wolfweres out of commission. While Karoug focused on clawing apart the summoned help, we took care of the still-conscious wolfweres. Then it became just a five-on-one confrontation with the greater wolfwere, and what do you know...none of my weapons can harm him. No arrows from Monty or Imoen, not Spider's Bane, not my PC's two flails +1. So, what can I do? I guess I just reverted to a simply but effective strategy: Magic Missile barrage. Both Imoen and Xzar are level 8 (or were close to it at the time), and Xzar has a ring that doubles his first level spells. I think Imoen had 4 and Xzar had 6. Karoug may have resisted a good percentage of the magic missiles, but a lot still hurt him. And there were a lot. Eventually, he was dead.
Returned to Dradeel before returning to the village. I was going to head straight back after giving the mage his spellbook, but I actually turned around halfway there to the village to rest and heal at Dradeel's cabin. I had a strange feeling about the villagers, and a shipwrecked sailor-turned-villagers vaguely warned me that nothing here is as it seems. Plus, most of the villagers would mention smells and scents. So my guess? Werewolves. And what do you know, that's just what it is. I actually wasn't opposed to Kaishas turning me into a lycanthrope and being part of the tribe...as long as I could still leave. Unfortunately it just wasn't meant to be. We fought our way to the ship, killed the transformed Kaishas, and set sail for home.
The toughest battle of this whole subplot was waiting for us when we docked in Ulgoth's Beard. Mendas revealed his true identity and motivations, and before we knew it we had two loup garou on our hands. I fled out of the house into the yard in front, and faced them there. Again, no weapons were working. I used magic missiles again, but eventually we ran out after the first of the loup garou died. At some point, Ajantis gets struck down. Now it's four of us, and it's up to the healer to do the bulk of the tankwork. I relied heavily on Xzar's Ring of Energy and a wand of frost that was handed off to Imoen in the midst of the battle. The second werewolf died, and the four of us who were still living could finally enjoy the solid ground we hadn't stood on in weeks.I resurrected the Paladin and the Dwarf at the Lady's Hall in Baldur's Gate on my way down south. It was a quick pit stop in the Grand Dukes' city, and nothing seemed to have changed much. Again, though, I'm paranoid I'm being watched by the Iron Throne or some satellite organization, so I make the stay quick. I sold most of my treasure at Sorcerous Sundries, including Balduran's log book for a cool 5kgp.
Next, on to Beregost. I'm at something of a crossroads at this point. I still think it's too soon to return to Baldur's Gate (even though it's been *ahem* more than six weeks)...not enough new experience has been gained since most of that time was spent sitting on a ship. As I said lost post, I never really got a chance to explore the areas east and west of Beregost....so that became the plan. If I'm truly going to be the hero of the Sword Coast, I need to know its ins and outs, especially around this central-type merchant town. So after resting at my favorite inn, the Jovial Juggler, I head west to High Hedge. It's been five months or more since I first ran through here, scared for my life, dodging skeleton darts. But now look at us. Either Imoen casts a Fireball to incinerate them all, or one of the three of us with Turn Undead just send them scattering.
Either way: I meet Kivan. I don't have to tell him anything about us, so I leave him standing there. Yes, he's a warrior with high dexterity (been looking for one), but I don't want to be left with no fighters at all (multi-class or not). Then I head into High Hedge itself. Talked to the mage and bought Imoen a Robe of the Good Archmagi. That'll do it.
Head west to give another shot at the flesh golem cave. This time, after the experience of defeating dozens of wolfweres not too long ago, the golems weren't too much of a challenge. I came out with a Manual of Bodily Health. Then I turned north to the coast region I hadn't explored yet...met a water nymph (or something) enslaved by an ogre mage, gained the Helmet of Defense, and met the late Davaeorn's brother.
And that's where my party is at this point. I'm about to journey to the large expanse of land east of Beregost...heard rumors of the ruins of a magic school? Maybe some bridge ruins too. Just fully experiencing the Sword Coast area before heading back to Baldur's Gate to start bringing all of this to a close.
The levels of the members of the group:
Idaen, lvl 7 cleric/lvl 6 ranger
Yeslick, lvl 6 fighter/lvl 6 cleric
Ajantis, lvl 7 paladin
Montaron, lvl 6 fighter/lvl 7 thief
Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 8 mage
Xzar, lvl 8 necromancer
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