Mildly Confused Adventures in Athkatla

So we're in Athkatla.  Last place we left off was in the Copper Coronet, just having picked up Nalia, the mage.  Well, we start talking to some of the locals, and we rest finally (the first time since escaping the initial dungeon).  I have a somewhat shaky gameplan in mind...head out Nalia's estate and take care of the monsters attacking her home.  Sure, sure, sounds good.  And oh, I bump into Minsc.  Apparently he was able to escape from the dungeon as well.  Good for him, I guess.  Still not interested in having him join, though...maybe if things change in the future.

Before I leave the inn, I bump into Korgan.  A berserker?  Wouldn't hurt to have him around.  And he's looking for a valuable book, presumably worth a fortune, right here in the city.  I'm going to get on board with this...Nalia's thing can wait.

So we head on over to the graveyard district, and find the tombs right away.  Battle several groups of powerful spiders...I realize at this point that I should have had Jaheira memorize slow poison a couple of more times.  I would have brought some antidotes, but our funds are very, very low at this point...I can't even afford magical weapons for most of my team.  Either way, with two healers (one with 21 WIS), we should be good to go for an extended amount of time.  I finally make my way to the tunnel that Korgan recognizes as the one with the Book of Kaza, and we proceed to get into an "epic" battle with just too many undead.  Somehow, we manage to survive, but we're hurting and out of healing spells.  Time to get back to the surface, and heal and rest.  We'll return later, I don't see a clock ticking on this one yet.

Of course, nothing but trouble awaits us, even on the surface.  I head to the Copper Coronet to rest, but a pair of muggers start attacking us.  Bear in mind, we are almost out of spells, and not one of us is at full health.  Oh yeah, and 40% of us are level-drained by the undead.  We're able to kill one and start chasing after the other.  He only leads us up to the roof, and to Shagbag et al, Korgan's old party.  Wow...I have no chance right now.  We run away, hoping to maybe regroup and make a stand?  I'm able to kill Shagbag, but no one else.  The thugs with their crossbows are just too much.  We retreat, fast, and are able to lose them somewhere between the slums and Waukeen's Promenade.  But it seems right after we lose them, we're waylaid by a group of slavers and some of their mage-friends.  Ugh, not the best timing.  I race away and lose them, too.

Korgan lets me know that his precious book is probably just on Shagbag's body.  Oh, great, so I guess we don't have to return to the tombs underneath the graveyard.  Eh, I think I'll return there anyway of my own volition...seems like a good enough place for adventure, treasure, and experience.  Oh, and by the way, Korgan is not meshing well with the group...got into some nasty exchanges with Nalia and Yoshimo.  There might be trouble brewing, but right now the fighter is absolutely worth what he brings to the table tactically.  Jaheira is beginning to romance me pretty hard.  I'm just choosing my responses as what comes naturally, but it seems to be working out that she's just crazy for me.  It's been like 3 or 4 days since she realized Khalid was dead...and to be honest, she just seems like kind of a loser (see my BG1 experiences with her).  I'm not feeling it too much, but I couldn't see my character (who is me, pretty much) not wanting to, ahem, become more intimate with an attractive female.

I'm not exactly sure what we did next.  Rested in the promenade, sold some humble treasures and tried to re-equip as best as possible.  At some point during the previous battle, we were warned by the Cowled Wizards that spellcasting is illegal.  Of course I completely forgot when we headed back to the slums to finish the rest of Korgan's old group off and recover the book from Shagbag's body.  I think Nalia casted "Slow" or something, and I saw a Cowled Wizard teleport in...headed for the zone line again, and was able to avoid any confrontation with the mage.

I've seen two or three vampire-shadow thief battles in the streets.  Weird, even it seems it somehow relates to me personally.  Eventually I made my way to the government district and found out I need 5000gp to be able to use magic in the city limits.  I think this is going to be my next major investment...it's too important to use spells when confronting enemies, and I don't want any trouble.  I also agree to try to hunt Valygar down.  I do not mind working for the Cowled Wizards.  They know where Imoen is, they're a powerful faction in Amn, and they can grant me the ability to cast spells with immunity.  I have no qualms about bringing a supposed murderer to justice.  And oh yeah...I see a group of fanatics about to burn a drow named Viconia. I remember a Viconia from the Sword Coast.  She attacked my group when I refused to save her from a Flaming Fist mercenary.  She's in a similar situation here.  I actually would have saved her (since death by incineration is just an awful fate), but I was unclear about the mechanism for doing it...was I just supposed to start massacring the fanatics?  Either way, she was toast by the end.  I'm not too sad about it.  At least Anomen is still around if I need a healer.

So I head to the docks, and at some point I am attacked again while moving between districts.  This time, I agree to bring a poisoned man to a house in the docks.  I do this, since I'm headed to the docks anyway.  But hey!  It's Xzar.  The insulting jerk doesn't remember me, but whatever.  He say I can help rescue Montaron by infiltrating the Harper Amnish headquarters.  Nooo problem.  Hey, I could use another thief, and Xzar is probably a very powerful mage at this point.  They were great allies to me in the past, so the least I could do is help them.

Welp, it turns out the trick was on me, as both Montaron and Xzar seem to be dead by the end of this.  Oh well, all's well that ends well...for Idaen, at least.  I guess this teaches me to not really mess with the Harpers. Pretty powerful organization, and I was just a pawn (or maybe a rook or knight) in their scheming.

So now it's to Valygar's house to investigate his whereabouts.  I have a feeling I'm going have to travel outside the city soon, but no concern.

Here's the party right now:

Idaen, lvl 8 cleric/lvl 8 ranger
Korgan, lvl 8 berserker
Jaheira, lvl 7 fighter/lvl 9 druid
Yoshimo, lvl 11 bounty hunter
Nalia, lvl 4 thief>level 9 mage

What's my plan here?  Let's prioritize:

Long-term goal is to find Imoen.  Not sure how exactly to do this yet, but I'm going in two directions concurrently:  gain the trust of the Cowled Wizards, while saving up to 20kgp for Gaelan Bayle.  But my equipment is just awful right now, and my potential is far above what I'm capable of right now.  So I also need to save money for better equipment and a magic-users license...this comes almost before anything, even Imoen.  I'm not going to be able to save her if I'm impotent on the battlefield.  And for that matter, I could use a 6th member of the group.

So what do I need to actually do?  My "quests" right now are three-fold: return to the graveyard catacombs, head east to the de'Arnise keep, and track down Valygar.  I'm going to accomplish these three things first before starting anything else.  Got it!