Sarevok Dies

The final battle:

Prepared to enter the Temple of Bhaal.  The party is 1.) Idaen, the Bhaalspawn.  2.) Shar-Teel.  We picked her up out near the basilisk grounds east of Beregost, pretty late in the game.  Due to her impressive fighter skills, she was recruited and has been performing great with the group since then.  3.) Ajantis, a paladin that has been with the group for a long time.  We banded together to hunt bandits many months ago, and it's evolved into something greater.  4.)  Tiax.  He joined us only a week or less ago, as a replacement for the slain Montaron.  Never been outside of Baldur's Gate with him in the group.  5.) Imoen, here since the very beginning...became a deadly mage in the few months since we left Candlekeep the first time.  6.) Xzar, evil necromancer slash crazy Zhentish agent.  He's been with us since just after Imoen joined the PC.

Tiax checking for traps in the main chamber...and there are a lot of them.  Of course, the thief is using his cleric spells to find the traps.

And it starts!  Focus on Angelo and the mage first.  Shar-Teel has to kill her father?  Hey...none of my business if she's okay with it.  Also, that Wand of Monster Summoning came in handy definitely.

Welp, Tiax just generally stood there and didn't do much of anything the whole time...maybe cast a spell or two, maybe sling some bullets.

Some doom guards spawned due to setting off a trap or entering an area I shouldn't have.  Imoen neutralizes them fairly easily with a wand of stunnin'.

And...Sarevok falls.  If I knew he would take this much damage from magic missiles, I would have just bombarded him from the start.  Either way, this all worked out just fine.

And that's it.  I've never beaten BG1 until that moment.  Of course it can be argued that, did I really complete the game since it ended before I could return to Durlag's Tower?  Well, that's for the refs to decide.  Next playthough I know I'll get to it, but this time I might have been itchin' to get the campaign moving.

This is my team at the end of the game:

Idaen, lvl 7 cleric/lvl 7 ranger
Shar-Teel, lvl 7 fighter
Ajantis, lvl 8 paladin
Tiax, lvl 5 cleric/lvl 6 thief
Imoen, lvl 6 thief>level 9 mage
Xzar, lvl 9 necromancer.

So it's onto...Amn?  Yes, it is.  I've already started playing BG2 with Idaen, so a new blog should be coming sooon.  Actually, when I imported, they gave me a lot of extra experience...like 240k or so...I'm not sure what happened but it sure is weird.  I immediately leveled up to level 8 cleric, but that's for next post.

Something of a Retreat, plus Re-Taking Baldur's Gate (Part 2 of 2)

Pickup up where we left off...

So first thing's first, I head to the Lady's Hall and make some sizable donations. See, everyboody? I'm a philanthropist and respectable citizen. My reputation levels out so I'm ready to start dealing with Sarevok as quickly and efficiently as possible. I head to the Iron Throne headquarters, kill a consort of his and get his diary, with the information that he is in the Undercellar? I may have misheard (misread) her there, though. Either way, I head down and find Sarevok's two assassins...kill them and take from one of them an invitation to Sarevok's upcoming coronation ceremony. I then head up to save Duke Eltan from his doppleganger doctor. Angelo is still staring at us as we pass him by. I took a risk coming in here, but he just gives us the same spiel as before. Whatever!

The evil members of my party finally start feeling at home, after a few Flaming Fist kills.  That won't last forever, though, once I'm about to donate some funds to a local temple.

Finding our way into the Undercellar...

Eltan saved.

Next is the coronation ceremony. Et cetera, et cetera, Sarevok is exposed to the city as the treacherous villain he really is. Just trying to start a war to tap into his murderous divinity...okay, I can see that. So I chase him down to the maze. Warned about traps almost immediately, great. I have only one or two potions of master thievery for Tiax and his damn 55 in detect traps, so after a while I decided I don't want to go on without a nice stash of those potions or a good amount of Find Traps memorized. I figured if we were to die in this maze, that's exactly what Sarevok would want. His plans were foiled and Baldur's Gate should be okay for now...the clock isn't ticking as furiously, and it seems like he has nowhere to go other than to await me at the Temple of Bhaal in the old city.

Crashing the party.

I don't like this maze.

I traveled back up to the Elfsong to rest and rememorize...we used a lot of our spells in the encounters leading up to this point. Bought some potions of master thievery and had both Tiax and Idaen memorize Find Traps several times. Should be somewhat prepared moving forward.

Sarevok has been completely exposed.  The best part?  The commoners think that he killed Rieltar, when the actual fact is that it was my party and I that did it.  We never had any qualms about it or tried to hide it, either.  Yeah, we were arrested and hunted completely legitimately.  Public opinion is a fickle thing, I guess.

Headed back into the maze and slowly navigated my way through. Didn't explore the whole area...wasn't too confident in my thief, didn't need the experience, and the plotline was calling. The gnome didn't perform half-badly, but as a level 5 cleric and a level 6 thief, he's only so useful. I headed into the old city (the "undercity"? Not sure what they're calling it). Started navigating my way through, and what do you know...Xzar gets killed by nothing less than a pack of ghasts. What the hell? Hey, my same sentiment applies from before. Sure, I can start barging forward with 5 members of my party, but that's exactly what Sarevok wants. Better let him wait while we come in at full strength...do things on my terms.

So again...went up to the surface to regroup and rest, get Xzar resurrected, etc.   Oh yeah, also bought a Wand of Monster Summoning.  Should be useful.  Headed back down.  By the way, walking back and forth through the maze gets a little tiring after a while. And we didn't explore the entire undercity area, either. We kind of stumbled upon the temple...this is it. Better not risk death and use up spells, but to just confront my nemesis when my party is strong. Of course, Tamoko got what was coming to her.

And...that's where the adventures end in this post. Waiting outside the Temple of Bhaal for the presumed final battle. I never got this far into BG1. Really making some milestones here...ha.

Party:

Idaen, lvl 7 cleric/lvl 7 ranger
Shar-Teel, lvl 7 fighter
Ajantis, lvl 8 paladin
Tiax, lvl 5 cleric/lvl 6 thief
Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 9 mage
Xzar, lvl 9 necromancer

And now, an NPC update of appearances, locations, and fates:

Permanently Dead:

Faldorn/ Picked up, switched out, and accidentally left in the Cloakwood mines when it was flooded.
Minsc/ He attacked us in Nashkel after we wouldn't let him join the group...
Montaron/ Durlag's Tower trap vaporized him. Saddest perma-death of the game.
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 attacked us.

Encountered and Alive, but Not Coming Back:

Coran/ Picked him up for a brief trip up to Baldur's Gate. We ended up killing one too many Flaming Fist soldiers, so he stormed off when we let him go.
Dyanheir/ We didn't want to join with her at th 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 we never saw him again.
Garrick/ We weren't going to be bodyguards for 50gp a piece, so he politely apologized and walked off.

Encountered and Alive, with a Last Known Whereabouts:

Branwen/ Hanging around the Nashkel carnival.
Eldoth/ He's in Cloakwood. We weren't looking for a scheming bard.
Jaheira/ I let her go when I realized she and Khalid weren't doing it for me...they should be resting at the Beregost temple.
Kagain/ He is in Cloakwood, living and hunting (I guess) near the Shadow Druid hub. Replaced him with a druid.
Khalid/ Same as Jaheira.
Kivan/ Still in the High Hedge. We weren't looking for the help of a ranger at that point.
Quayle/ Outside the gates of Baldur's Gate. Didn't need his help, either.
Yeslick/ This guy was a good member of the group, but his dex wasn't helping. He's living out in the wilderness of the basilisk map.

Not Encountered:

Alora
Skie

Something of a Retreat, plus Re-Taking Baldur's Gate (Part 1 of 2)

So, with Montaron gone forever, we packed our gear up and got the hell to the surface.  Maybe one day I'll return to Durlag's Tower, but it got the best of me for now.  It all hinges on finding the right thief.  I'm not comfortable heading back into there with a character with any less than 80 in trap detection.  Like I said last post, my party has met two thieves that we could possibly enlist: Coran and Tiax.

Marching north through the Firewine ruins.

So I headed up north into Flaming Fist territory.  Because we're all wanted, I stayed east of the main road...no point in being too public.  Ran into Yeslick, adventuring or wandering or waiting up where we left him.  He was nice enough to ask if we needed his help, but we're going to stick with Shar-Teel right now.  Actually, I got the idea of maybe replacing Ajantis with the dwarf?  In fact, it would be nice to have a backup healer.  Idaen is carrying the full load right now, and half of my spell slots are straight healing spells.  But egh, now's not the time.  The paladin stays and we say bye to Yeslick.

Taking out some gibberlings on my way up.  Why am I still dealing with this??

Quick sidenote:  it's really tricky to give an in-game justification for why most NPCs just stand around for months and months in the same spot you left them when they were told to leave the group.  As you may or may not know, I'm something of a pseudo-roleplayer as I go through this game, so I want most or all of the in-game activity justified in a way cohesive with the game world.  A little difficult to try to come up with an explanation about why a spurned groupmember stays out in the woods indefinitely.  Well, I'm also definite to use the NPC Project mod next time through, and I think that it fixes this problem by having NPCs go to inns or whatnot.


So anyway, we stop in Cloakwood and grab up Coran.  He doesn't seem to mind too much about wyverns anymore...good.  Bigger and better things are happening.  But ouch; only 20 in detect traps.  Pfft, that's not really going to work.  I decided to keep him around as a sixth head until we made it up to Baldur's Gate to get a look at what Tiax's skill is.



Welcome Coran

We headed up through the Woods of Sharp Teeth.  I figure I could get lost in the crowd in Baldur's Gate, maybe slip in and out without anyone noticing.  But it's impossible...a lot of people recognize me.  Sarevok has been running amok, assassinating dukes and making power grabs.  Hmm, maybe I should have came up to the city earlier?  Actually, even if he was a Grand Duke by the time I got up there, my whole plan wouldn't really change.  I'd still march in and try to kill him. And at least then I'd have the experience and treasure of Durlag's Tower under my belt.

This guy wanted to smuggle me into the city.  I thought about it, but declined...smelled like some sort of trap to me.

But this is the way it goes.  I have no intention right off the bat of going to jail, not without a party I'm sure about.  Unfortunately, this means that I have to kill a Flaming Fist Enforcer or two or three on my way to pick up Tiax.  Eventually, I realize I just may get too much blood on my hands.  And now what?  After seeing what I've seen, I can't just leave the city.  Now, for better or worse, is the time to strike.  I let us get arrested before we find Tiax.  Fortunately, Angelo almost immediately lets us go free.  Apparently, this guy is Shar-Teel's father and there are some pangs of guilt in him?  Wasn't explained too well, but I figure I might have missed a thing or two.  He said our equipment was in the basement...but we all still obviously had it on our persons.  Weird (translation...bug or something.  Gotta roll with it).

This definitely doesn't look good to the general public...

So it's on to Tiax.  There are some more Enforcers looking for us around certain corners.  Shrug, I guess I can starting having Xzar or Imoen cast Hold on them or something.  I know that Tiax is evil, so he's not going to care about how despised I am when I eventually catch up to him.  Coran, on the other hand, probably had no idea what he was getting himself into.  He's vocally upset...don't know what to tell him.  Tiax's detect traps skill is 55...not good enough, but it's a start.  Better than Coran and a much better idea than having Shar-Teel dual class at this stage in the game.  I let Coran go...he expresses his regret for ever agreeing to adventure with us and storms off.  I'll probably never see him again.  I pick up Tiax and the group is mildly presentable again.

So that's what we're doing...deep inside the big city, standing outside the Iron Throne building, with a reputation of 1, despised by all.  Part 2 should follow soon.

Party:

Idaen, lvl 7 cleric/lvl 7 ranger
Shar-Teel, lvl 7 fighter
Ajantis, lvl 8 paladin
Tiax, lvl 5 cleric/lvl 6 thief
Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 9 mage
Xzar, lvl 9 necromancer

Luck of the Zhentarim...a Shocking Ending

Right off the bat, I know...I haven't been updating as much this past month or two.  Naturally, hobbies ebb and flow and this one's experiencing a temporary downturn...no problems, I see it turning back around inevitably.

So we pick up where we left off...I'm still hacking away at Durlag's Tower...not really making any significant progress.  I believe I had just left last post re-entering the Tower to finish up the first level, after both Xzar and Montaron had fallen in battle, and I had made the two 8-hour trips to Nashkel and back to have them resurrected.  So we continued along on our way...detecting traps, opening locks, finding quest items for those dwarven specters.  Although, somehow, and at some point, Xzar gets killed by a greater doppleganger.  Just great, huh?  Once Pride and Avarice and whoever else attacked us, Montaron didn't stick around for long, either.  That's both of them dead, again.  This calls for the second humbling hike back to Nashkel to resurrect the thief and the necromancer...unbelievable.  Rinse and repeat.

Just slowly working our way through the rest of the first level.  Nothing crazy so far...

Climbing to the surface to rest, after an encounter on the first level.

At this point, Xzar wasn't going to be joining us for the exploration down this next hallway...

The second level is waiting for us, but we can't risk diving in without one of our mages, and much more importantly, without our only thief with respectable detect trap skills (Imoen has most of her skill in detecting illusions and opening locks).  I really think that the detect-traps thief is the most crucial character types in the game.

In and out of Nashkel after resurrecting our fallen Zhentarim...and maybe staying a night at the inn.

Back in and beginning the second level...looks tough, and I'm still a little shook from all the trouble we ran into on the first level.

Getting it done on level 2.  Successful battle.

I don't even want to say what happens next because it seems so incredible.  But it happens.  Xzar gets fried in a lightning trap that got set off for some stupid reason, and Monty gets cracked by a trap that he didn't detect (stupid error).  That's right, both Xzar and Montaron dead again for the third time since I entered Durlag's place of residence.  Ugh...so again, travel back to Nashkel, get them resurrected, spend too much time messing around with inventory management, and turn back east.  Head back down in there to pick it up right where we left off...I'm becoming efficient.  But now, the kicker:

What?

Wasn't I just talking about perma-death in the last post?  Damn...my thief is gone.  Wasn't I just talking about how crucial they are?  I can't even try to navigate this trap-filled tomb with Montaron gone.  And the worst part is that I sent him to disarm the trap that HE DETECTED.  And I think he actually DISARMED it...I got the experience for it.  But is it some kind of trap that never goes away?  What the hell?  Sigh...either way, it was a good run with Montaron.  I met him within a few hours of waking up the night after Gorion died and he's been with the group since.  Evil bastard, maybe, but generally dependable.  And I made him into a decent archer.

Anyway, he's gone.  My first permanent death of this playthrough.  I need to figure out what is going on with that trap, but that won't happen for a while.  Actually, it might never happen.  I may head up north and, being so close to the end of the game, may not get a chance to head back south.  So I'm thinking that I know two thieves: Coran and Tiax, and of course Shar Teel can always dual.  One is in Cloakwood, and one is in 

Baldur's Gate.  I'm going to have to see who has a higher detect traps rating, and it'll be my excuse for heading right back into the big city.  Durlag can wait for another time (or playthrough)...

Idaen, lvl 7 cleric/lvl 7 ranger

Shar-Teel, lvl 7 fighter

Ajantis, lvl 8 paladin

Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 9 mage

Xzar, lvl 9 necromancer