DavesGaming

Our return to Baldur’s Gate was interesting. Mainly because being invisible meant we couldn’t see each other! We decided to hold hands to keep together, which got interesting navigating crowds. There was plenty of drama in the air, which we mostly avoided by being invisible. We talked with a woman named Tomoko, who was a part of Saravok’s crew, and struck me as a tragic sort. She is in love with the monster, and helped us bring him down to save him. There can be no good ending there, and there wasn’t.

We also found that Duke Eltan had been poisoned, and was being “cared for” by a villain. So we managed a rescue and got him delivered to friends. We then returned to the Iron Throne headquarters still hoping to find better evidence of his intentions before he was announced as a new Duke. This time we had some success, and learned of a new assassination plot against city leaders.

Then a whirlwind of activity to kill a pair of assassins and get to the Ducal palace to intercept Saravok. This all went well enough, we had numerous documents showing Saravok was up to no good; but Saravok’s plans now seem to involve killing everyone and we wound up in a melee in the palace against a horde of dopplegangers.

Then we chased Saravok to an old Bhaal Temple in the city’s catacombs. He had a few dangerous enough allies with him, enough I was briefly worried. But he charged at us ahead of his support! A powerful and foolish man. Diomedes, Branwen and Minsc engaged him closely while Jaheira, Imoen and I took out his support. The heart left our opponents pretty quickly when Saravok fell.

We were given rooms in the palace to recuperate afterwards. Imoen expressed interest in mage training and one of the Dukes, Liia Janath took her on as a pupil. So it looks like we may be here a while…

A few days in, we were asked to join the hunt for a small group of Saravok’s followers who were held up in an old crypt. It was a small little chore, apart from fighting some undead, the group of thugs and mercenaries decided to surrender after a short fight. What a nice change! The one oddity was no Imoen. I considered doing the scouting work myself, we do have a number of “Potions of Mastery Thievery” that we never needed when Imoen was present (!), I think it would make up our skill gap. But the Flaming Fist made a local thief, Safana, available to us. It seemed foolish not to accept the help. Dang that woman made me furious! Constantly flirting with my husband. Actually sort of funny, he refused to acknowledge it. I noticed she wasn’t a team player with coins and gems she found either. We don’t need allies with weak character. I think in the future, we will reject the help of thieves apart from Imoen.

A few weeks of leisure passed. Khalid and Dynaheir met up with us! That was fun. But our team drifted away with other tasks. Jaheira and Khalid said something about a romantic get away, Dynaheir needed to resume her travels and Minsc went with her. And Branwen went off with barely a goodbye. The city was getting crowded at this time with refugees coming in to escape “The Crusade” occurring up north, which we were about to learn a lot more about.

One night, Imoen came into Diomedes and my room saying she thought she heard voices in the palace. Indeed, we were assaulted by thugs or assassins. They succeeded in poisoning Imoen, before we completely thwarted the attack. They had entered the palace in two groups, and each had a portrait of me! And they bore the mark of Caelar Argent’s Crusade. It was on.

Imoen would need several days to recover from the poisoning. And she shouldn’t interrupt her training anyway. So for the moment my team was me and my husband. A Flaming Fist Captain suggested the Rashami (Minsc and Dynaheir) were still at Three Kegs Inn and Tavern in town. So we set off for our old friends and they immediately joined with us. Diomedes and I had discussed our need for a good cleric. With all the refugee traffic in town we figured asking around the Inn made sense. We met a woman, a Dawnbringer of Lathander who was interested in thwarting a crusade that had already caused her family some grief.

She introduced herself as Moya of Clan Durban and spoke with a thick brogue. She looked at our crew, the four of us, and said “I have to warn you though, if you expect help with Infravision I’m as human as the rest of you”. “You’ll fit in fine Moya. I suspect your family tree is as interesting as mine!”

Moya Durbin is a NG Human, 7th Level Cleric of Lathander
9 – 16 – 15 – 11 – 18 – 16

We all took care of some final business and outfitting before departure with a group of troops the City was sending to join a coalition camp preparing to battle this Crusade. They’d sent an escort with us all day, the extra body did some good with all the crowds and chaos of the city just now. And she seems a capable and reliable warrior, a Captain in the Flaming Fist named Schael Corwin. So we also asked her to join with us on our “special operations”. We now have a team of six that should be ready for whatever lies ahead. And I’m the thief…

*****

Yeah, I think it will be interesting having a second level thief, retired since she was 13 (!) doing the job. We really do have plenty of potions for her, over 50. Imoen never needed them.

Moya is another original character, just for SoD. I had fun coming up with something as exotic as I could who was actually normal. The AI prompt was “Chinese half-elf”. So naturally I decided she would be an Irish Human.