DavesGaming

Sarah

We set off for the Cloakwood Forest the next morning. This is a large, thick wood. It should take us several days to reach our destination, and this area is not well traveled. So hazards are likely many.

One of the first things to come up was an encounter with a hunter, who begged our protection from “savages” of some sort who’d been threatening him.

The savages in question turned out to be Druids, which did not surprise Jaheira!

Most of our fighting in this part of the woods had been Tasloi (small savage humanoids that are often violent with no explanation), wolves and a few big spiders. Things were about to get a little tougher!

This included a few bigger spiders and some of those twisted humanoid spider beings known as Ettercaps. They like to set traps, and this area became quite tough. Fortunately Alora is great with finding the traps. We also went through a lot of poison anti-dote! These things get nasty! The climax for the spiders came when we stumbled across a large cave.

After, I asked Chuck about the mage she named, the name seemed to mean something to him. He said Irenicus was a very powerful, very evil mage; whom he hoped not to ever meet!

The next thing we found in these woods was an enclave of shadow druids. The druids we’d met earlier had warned Jaheira this group was out here. They are a particularly anti-civilization off-shoot of that faith. So militantly anti-human I can only call them evil, even though they seem to escape that taint for some bizarre meta-physical reason that must make sense to some god somewhere.

They were holding an unfortunate young druidess captive too, soon to be sacrificed. We put an end to this barbarism.
I was thankful to be done with these fruits and nuts.

It was all I could do not to bust out laughing. Imoen was so sincere! Sure she was raised in a great monastery. By the Inn and Tavern keeper who was host to travelers from all over. And she’s almost 20! I think Jaheira’s concerns are misplaced. But kudos to Imoen for stringing her along!

We came across a few immature Wyverns in this part of the woods. I’d seen a notice back in Beregost that a reward offered for “proof of death” of Wyverns that had been preying on livestock. So we thought it important to poke around a little, and did find a cave with several cattle and pig carcasses.

Not too much later we started encountering guard patrols, of the sort that were immediately hostile to us. We weren’t sure if they were looking for us or just any intruders. But it was clear we were on the right path. And soon enough we saw a wooden stockade around a large mining building. The greeting inside was not too friendly. There was a small group of armored warriors and spellcasters waiting for us, I told Chuck and Imoen to hold back while we parlayed.

Arrogant jerk, went down easy. And he had nice boots, the magic sort that will fit me just fine.

We let ourselves into the mine. No shock, it was all run by slaves.

There were a number of guards on the levels below, a mix of humans and hobgoblins. I think we were driven by a pretty righteous wrath, and we cleared this place out.
There was a mage who’d set up a posh headquarters on the lowest level. He had a name, that I think Chuck noted down somewhere. More to the point, he seemed to be taking orders from a trade association called “The Iron Throne”. From their office in the City of Baldur’s Gate.
So I guess next, we’re heading into town.

*****

This run continues to go quite well! Its a good team. I definitely was aware during the fight with Davaeorn that he had a few tricks and cast a few spells I’ve not seen him use before (again, my first run with the SCS mod). But on this difficulty setting it posed no particular problems.

I continue to try and use OpenArt for more renders, so I can get *more* of Chuck and Sarah into these pictures. But getting good fantasy renders from it remains elusive to me, Co-Pilot is simply far better at the look I want. I’m trying a few things to get just a few shots of Chuck and Sarah really *together*, so far my attempts have all been pretty poor. You will know here if I ever figure it out!