Leaving the City, and the de'Arnise Estate

To gain some experience, and maybe some extra gold, I decided that we would stay close to the city for the time being...that is, finish clearing out Korgan's tombs.  Nalia started gently reminding us that we should head to her estate before it's too late...ah, damn.  I don't want to lose my only mage, so I should take this seriously.  I think we still have a day or two of leeway before she does something drastic, so that's just enough time to hit the catacombs.  Of course, there was no level drain or whatever in BG1, so I'm not entirely used to it.  Let me tell you, it is annoying.  I had Idaen, my cleric/ranger PC, memorize Negative Plane Protection a few times, as well as Lesser Restoration.  Good planning, but that just takes slots away from healing spells.  Egh, long story short, we trod our way through, Korgan "reminisces" about his old gang and the injustice with the Book of Kaza (a quest completed days earlier), and we hit the surface.

Next stop is Nalia's stronghold.  We left Athkatla in our dust and headed east.  The trip was much quicker than it would have been in BG1...no intermediate wilderness areas to trek across first.  This is civilized Amn, I guess.

The keep was something of a bloody adventure.  Like I said, I'm not entirely used to BG2, yet, with the complexity of the battles and the spellcasting being more advanced now.  Either way, I did what was asked of me.  I cleared the surrounding wilderness area, entered through the secret entrance, and opened the front gates.  Cleared the first level, then headed down to the cellars as per Nalia's hunch about the whereabouts of her father.

That's when things started getting a little crazy.  I was low on heal spells, low on potions, spells, health, everything.  But I figured we had to push on because there was something of a ticking clock for this one.

The room full of Umber Hulks was difficult...we ended up separating them into two or three groups, which made them beatable.  TorGal was intense, too.  Luckily, we were able to destroy him, although it was too late for Nalia's father.  This seemed to be something of a conclusion, so I headed back to the surface to speak with the troops at the palisades.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get back in to the keep again.  Which is a shame, because I feel like there are more components to the Flail of the Ages.  Does this means I'll just never get this weapon now?  Come on, my character USES flails.  Oh well, that's the danger of virgin runs and no non-essential reloads.

We rest and heal right outside the camp.  As soon as we get up and start mobilizing, Jaheira gets uppity and leaves the group.  She was summoned back to the Harper stronghold.  I told her that I'm the leader, and that I need her here.  Unfortunately, that didn't do it for her.  Maybe it had something to do with how I completely shut her down earlier...as soon as we emerged from the stronghold, she asked me if she could continue a story or answer a question that she didn't before, but also one that I didn't even remember asking about.  Ugh, I guess it was just bad timing, but I really did not care to hear it.  More important things to deal with, completely.  Either way, in a little more than eight hours she was gone.  Maybe I'll head to the Harpers to meet up with her to see what this is all about, but I doubt I'll ever want her in the group again after that terrible insubordination.  I need people I can trust, you know?

So it's on to the Umar Hills. The whole point of getting out of the city was to find this Valygar Corthala. So I head there, hear about some witch, some ogres, etc. That's where I'm at, now.

Party (only four of us):

Idaen, lvl 9 cleric/lvl 8 ranger
Korgan, lvl 9 berserker
Yoshimo, lvl 11 bounty hunter
Nalia, lvl 4 thief>lvl 10 mage

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!

Flashforward to Amn, and Meshing with the Canon

So here we go:  Baldur's Gate 2.  I have never completed any respectable amount of this game.  I may have escaped Irenicus' dungeon during a few playthroughs from the past, but I never got much further past that.  But that's all in the past...time to play what is sometimes called the greatest CRPG ever.

Like I said last post, I got some extra experience when I imported my Tutu final-save over to BG2.  It wasn't 240k or whatever I said in the last post, though.  It was about 63k...my cleric and ranger levels were both at around 112k.  I went back and loaded the final save from Tutu, and indeed my experience was at that level...at least at first.  After walking around a little, it dropped back to 161k for some reason.  Real weird, but I'm not going to fight it....I figure beating Sarevok gives you a healthy amount of experience that you could bring with you to BG2.

So anyways, here I am, being waken up by Imoen.  After a quick conversation with her, I was free...let's try to find a way out of here.  I immediately level up to cleric 8.  After all the tomes from BG1, my stats are very solid, to say the least:

STR 18
DEX 18
CON 19
INT 11
WIS 21
CHA 10








So before we delve into this game, we need to align the "official" canon of the game with the actual game experience I had up north on the Sword Coast.  So, when Sarevok died, Ajantis and Xzar probably left the group after a few day.  They joined me to help solve the bandit crisis, and to find out why the Zhentarim were being blamed for the bandit crisis respectively.  Both of their problems got resolved at game's end, so I can't see why they would stick around much longer.  Shar-Teel and Tiax must have eventually went their separate ways, too.  Both were chaotic and evil, so I could see them suddenly uppin' and leaving, especially since my reputation probably climbed in the time following the death of the Bhaalspawn Almost-Duke.

So then it was just Imoen and the PC Idaen.  At some point we must have run into Jaheira and Khalid again.  We had adventured with them in the beginning, but they were phased out pretty early on, right after infiltrating the old bandit camp north of Peldvale.  And then after having those two rejoin...wow, I must have met up with Dynaheir.  With a quick look back on this blog, I can remember that we saved Dyanheir from the gnoll stronghold but didn't want to join with her...she stormed off.  A few days or weeks before that, we refused to help Minsc look for his witch.  He attacked us, and we killed him.  Soooo....presumably, Dynaheir, after being freed, found her way to Nashkel, found Minsc's body, and had him resurrected.

But why would we have joined up with an insane ranger who tried to kill us once?  I don't know.  Maybe we needed a mage (to replace the necromancer) and her tank had to come along.  But it happened, that's for sure...I'll blame my confusion on some memory loss that I incurred via Irenicus.  After inadvertently rescuing him from his cage, I tell him that we're not going to be traveling together and that he's on his own.  He walks off.  I don't like the guy, his witch is dead, and his overall style seems like it just doesn't lend itself to stealth and gravity.  Will I regret it?  Maybe, but it was instinctual and there aren't any reloads.

Jaheira...I remember a little better.  She was loyal, and a friend.  She definitely joins the group.  And here we go through the dungeon...weird, weird stuff.  And I can already see how BG2 is a better game than BG1 like so many people say.  I'm sure anyone reading this has gone through Irenicus dungeon before...and I don't remember anything I did in a novel or unique fashion, at least that I know off, so it's not really worth getting into.

Find some low-level equipment, get into some fights, drink a lot of potions, tell the dryads I'll deliver their acorns, pick up Yoshimo, and eventually bust my way out of there...took about 24 hours or so in all (game-time).

Imoen gets taken by the Cowled Wizards, as does our captor...and what do you know, I'm in Athkatla, Amn.  Phew...weird.  We need to find Imoen, and many people are pointing me in the direction of the slums. Not a bad choice.  Before leaving the Promenade, I stop at a street vendor to sell some objects and buy some weapons we're all proficient in.  I also get us all healed at the Temple of Ilmater.

Next thing you know, the game keeps going.  Meet Gaelan Bayle, and realize we need 20kgp.  Just looking to rest, still, at this point.  Rememorize spells so I can head into the city to check out shops and not feel completely vulnerable.  So I head to the Copper Coronet where multiple people have also directed me for work and adventure and that ilk.  I meet Anomen but I tell him there is neither good nor evil, and something about balance.  Needless to say, he doesn't like it.  But he's still there...maybe in a pinch I could come back and profess my righteousness (which wouldn't have been a far stretch to select).  Either way, I forget about him as soon as Nalia introduces herself.  A thief>mage, great.  Nooo problem we'll go to your estate...she seems rich , which is perfect for what we're trying to do.

And on that note, I'm still looking to sleep for a night...just need to find the innkeeper.  Here's my nubile party:

Idaen, lvl 8 cleric/lvl 8 ranger
Jaheira, lvl 7 fighter/lvl 8 druid
Yoshimo, lvl 10 bounty hunter
Nalia, lvl 4 thief>lvl 9 mage

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