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Chuck: Update 16

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atcDave

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Chuck

Several weeks had passed when we returned to Ulgoth’s Beard. Rumors we picked up regarding happenings in Baldur’s Gate were concerning. There had been assassinations, there were threats of war with Amn to the south, and Sarevok was increasing his influence. We needed to return, if for no other reason than to stop his rise to power.

But as far as we knew, we were still wanted for murder.

So here’s my plan, we have plenty of Potions of Invisibility for all of us. Each is good for a couple hours. So we enter the city and make for Duke Eltan’s office at the Flaming Fist headquarters. He will give us a fair chance, and he should know the most about what’s really going on.

It turns out, navigating a crowd when you are all invisible is a bit of challenge.

Sarah was getting frustrated with Alora, who took every opportunity to trip and harass every Flaming Fist we saw.

I didn’t mention to her that I was pretty sure Imoen was doing it too. Those two are not a great influence on each other!

We got to Duke Eltan, and saw an immediate problem. He’d been poisoned, by a “healer” who was really a doppleganger. After a whispered conversation, we decided Sarah would take out the poisoner. We had to do it with just one of us, because it would dispel the invisibility, and we wanted to conserve potions.

I needlessly worried, Sarah destroyed that doppleganger in seconds. We learned from Duke Eltan that Scar and one of the Dukes had been murdered. Duke Eltan suggested a friend of his in town we should get him to for better actual care.

“Duke Eltan, I can lift you, then we’ll both be invisible. This may be awkward, but I can carry the load.”

We took the Duke to the Harbormaster’s office, which was right across from the Iron Throne headquarters. Then we went into the Iron Throne, there must be papers somewhere showing Sarevok’s plans. We found a courtesan of his there, who was not pleased to see us! But we were able to find some correspondence on her, with a couple of assassins. These discussed political killings. But we also learned Sarevok was to be appointed as a new Duke this afternoon.
We had a little time yet, so we tracked down the assassins and found a specific hit list on them, and invitations to the coronation.

We weren’t quite dressed for the occassion!

But we finally got the hearing we wanted, and showed the Dukes what we had. Sarevok was not pleased! and suddenly we were fighting a number of dopplegangers who were there among the attendees. Sarevok gated out. After the brief fight Duke Liia Jannath divined Where Sarevok had fled to, and transported us right after him.
This led to a bit of chase.

But soon enough we faced the monster. My brother? He had support, but I had Sarah, Imoen and our friends.

Once he was cornered this was not a hard fight. After, we found ourselves back at the Ducal Palace. We were told we’d earned some leisure! Stay at the palace while recuperating.

Imoen talked with Liia Jannath about some problems she was having with spell research.

The thing is, Imoen and I have always been study partners. But she has advanced beyond me on pure arcane magic, specifically really struggling to understand some principles with spells of the fifth level and beyond. Basically, she needs a mentor. I’m just not there at all yet, so she had questions I can’t help her with.

I’ve also had some other things on my mind lately, and I’m just not very much help to Imoen.

Duke Jannath agreed to teach Imoen for several weeks of study. So we were going to be at the Palace for a while. After a few days we were asked to round up some of Sarevok’s followers who had fled into the catacombs. It seemed a little odd with just the five of us, no Imoen. Fortunately it wasn’t hard, most of this crew actually surrendered! What a pleasant surprise.
Over the next few days we said goodbye to our friends. Alora had not been happy around the Palace, so she was the first to go. Khalid met up with us, then he and Jaheira went off for some “time to themselves”. And Dynaheir also arrived, and she and Minsc left to continue their explorations. It looked like Sarah and I would have some time to ourselves while Imoen studied.

*****

This brings us to the end of the base game of Baldur’s Gate. The “Siege of Dragonspear” supplement will continue for a few days yet, I’ll be back with a reformed party, probably tomorrow.

I played the entire base game of Baldur’s Gate with the SCS mod, that boasts an enhanced AI for the villains. I do have it on a low setting, but so far I’ve seen very little difference from the original game. I think I’ll keep it where it is for the rest of this run (through BG2). I already have ideas for a new party, a new run, that I’ll dial it up a little higher for.

2 responses to “Chuck: Update 16”

  1. Zeno Avatar
    Zeno

    Congrats on another BG1 run!

    Those big set-piece battles – like Sarevok or Irenicus – or Firekraag – are where I really wish we could do lots more distinguishable characters in one frame. I always have in my mind an epic render with the whole party facing the big bad, and the AI is just not up to the task. I’ve got some ideas for doing it with multiple rendering and lots of hacking. But it would sure be nice to just lay it out in one go.

    I love the invisible Alora tripping soldiers pic. That’s a fun setup. “knights slipping on ice” or some such?

    I never know what to make of SCS. The most obvious differences (when most of it is on) are the calls for help that sometimes get out of hand and the cheating spellcasters. I don’t mind someone like Irenicus being set up with a bunch of spell triggers and countermeasures. But when every single mage and priest in every little one-off encounter instantly casts every defensive spell they have it’s just not fun. I really wish more games added difficulty by adding more enemies (with an offsetting Xp penalty). I know that’s harder to balance. But extra hp, saves, etc warp the game. Instant spell casting flagrantly cheats. More enemies – or better tactical layout- ups the difficulty without gimmicks.

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    1. atcDave Avatar
      atcDave

      The “Alora” (non-Alora?) pic was fun. I had just said “two armored guards trip and fall on busy city street”. The AI gave me a whole street of them! I love it.

      Yes, I very much wish we could do much bigger groups. I’d love to be able to describe by full party and the whole group of foes. But of course, given how much it jumbles up even two or three, something big needs to change with the AI.

      I do need to mention my amusing accident here. The last render of Sarah was never intended. It was from my “Sarah carries Duke Elton” set. Well, you know how stubborn OpenArt can be about showing *any* extra characters. So probably half the renders showed just Sarah. Most of the rest had the Duke picking up Sarah. A couple had a weird conjoined blob of two characters. I got the one you see, of Sarah standing over the poisoned Duke, which decided was very usable. But I liked a couple of the Sarah alone renders. The last one in this set, Sarah looking quite good in front of a rumpled bed, just begged for a punch-line. So that one was a keeper. Just don’t think too much about what’s going on with her armor…

      Yeah, SCS does some interesting things to the game. Calls for help may be the most important (on the low difficulty). But I swear I think it makes things easier. Because the whole area dumps on you fast, it’s easy for the player to pre-buff, and still have all those buffs running, for all the area’s combat.
      The idea of *all* enemy mages pre-buffing for every fight is exactly why I got so annoyed with the Tactics mod years ago and am still hesitant to turn SCS up any higher. For now, I’m thinking of this run as more about the story and illustrations, so I’m not going add that layer of challenge. But I’m thinking of a coming run, where I’ll maybe render and write less, but play more for a challenge.

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