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Jill: Update 8

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atcDave

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Let me start this update with a little clarification, a thought left incomplete on the last post.
I always rebuild Skie as a single class unkitted fighter. In my head canon, she was never really a thief. Just a bored and spoiled daughter of nobility. Who went through a minor sort of teen rebellion. Her first and only professional training came when she joined the Flaming Fist and became an archer (a *Fighter*, not the very specialized Ranger sort. Maybe call that small *a* archer). So in my run, Skie is a Fighter who started with two pips each in Short Bow and Short Sword. In essence, her build is the same as Jill’s. Although Skie has better total scores. So when Skie joins the team she is a perfect replacement for Jill, and Jill switches back to being the fighter on point. That is where we are at now.

The bulk of this write up will involve the mods “Dark Tidings” by Acifer and “Tangled Oak Isle”, “Southern Edge” and “Alabaster Sands” by Lava. I won’t spoil much, except I’ll say here that all add some nice character and minor adventures in and around the City of Athkatla.
All together, they add maybe 4 hours of gameplay? A lot of this is just fetch quests. A lot is character and world building. “Dark Tidings” and “Tangled Oak Isle” have the biggest adventures and involve some combat. Both are a ton of fun.

*****

We all talked about what to do next. We have a bunch of things we could be doing. We are now responsible for a small Castle and its land. We have made contact with the local Thieves’ Guild. They promise to put us onto Imoen’s trail. But we are currently broke. Frustrating, we were loaded not too long ago! But the Castle cost money, getting the thieves help cost money, and trying to buy new equipment costs money. Oof! Christopher thinks we should do a quick pass through the city and see what little jobs we can pick up. Adventuring seems to make money in a hurry, and Christopher and Jaheira both think we are poorly equipped. So a little asking around to see if we can make a little before we head off. Maybe just a couple days?

I hate not knowing where Imoen is, or if she’s okay. But I agree with the others, we just don’t have as much gear or as much of the good stuff as we had back in Baldur’s Gate. So a little exploring and questing for now.

We met a mage who was looking for adventurers to run over to the small Island of Irphong to investigate why its light went out.

The island was dark and shadowy, but then that was the problem.

This all led to some fighting, and a trip into the Shadow Realm.

In the end we knew we’d done a good deed.
Skie is a good archer and a big help. But she is a tireless shopper! I think Jaheira is getting annoyed with her.
Then we visited Tangled Oak Isle. The huge old tree that they’re named for was sick, we helped them sort that out.
We spent some time at the beach! Its actually not that much fun when you’re wearing armor.
And we heard about a cursed book, that had divided itself somehow. We had to track down all the little cursed bits of it. One little girl wanted a better toy for the book she had! [Really, that was a wooden toy sword. Geez. I’m not stupid].
And we met with Aran Linvail. He’s like the boss of the “Shadow Thieves”. Ooooo, scarey right? He was pretty nice to us. Jaheira says that’s just because he needs us, the vampires are kicking his butt. He’s going to pay us back everything we spent to find Imoen if we help with the vampires.
Seriously? I’d fight vampires just for a “thanks”.

Then we went back to the Castle to get some rest. There had been some more trouble with bandits in the area. Our militia is training, but I asked Skie to stay and help them with archery. She’s really good at that.

Then we went back into the City. We discussed finding another melee warrior type, and came across Keldorn.

Keldorn was friendly, and immediately willing to help us against undead towards rescuing my sister. He will be a good addition to the team.

Now its off to the Graveyard.

2 responses to “Jill: Update 8”

  1. Zeno Avatar
    Zeno

    That’s a fun walking shot. Very purposeful. And the meeting Keldorn puc is fantastic. I’ve always pictured Aran Linvail more… sketchy? Used car salesman vibes? Not quite in the same league as Saemon Haevaran for “I wouldn’t trust this guy if he told me the sky was blue”. but certainly everything he says is a half truth at best.

    Jaheira listening to Skie looks like she desperately wants to be *anywhere* else.

    Don’t think I’ve ever managed to have Skie in any party in either game. The connection to Eldoth together with the late appearance in BG1 always skeeved me out, and until Dragonspear linked her in there wasn’t really much reason to revisit her in BG2. Still not a character I connect with very well.

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    1. atcDave Avatar
      atcDave

      I liked the first one of Jill a lot. The idea of her being just a little bada$$ makes me laugh. From her scores she has no business acting tough, but as a 13th level fighter with good equipment, she can be deadly.

      The scene with Skie and Jaheira really make me laugh. The image was awesome, then animating it, wow! That was magic. I’d never taken Skie, ever. As you say, Eldoth is repugnant. And you don’t need a thief by the time you reach the City! I suspect all of the City based NPCs are rarely recruited.
      But of course she’s funny, then tragic in SoD. And “Cost of One Girl’s Soul” lets you fix it. So yeah, I always do that now even if I’m not recruiting her. It lets me fix one my least favorite things in the whole saga. And yeah, you get a chance to put Eldoth in his place too. Although I won’t this time. Skie has made her guest appearance. Jill fills that role so we really don’t need her.
      I would add, her friendship path for a female main character works the best. She’s still sort of vapid, consistently to the end. But she’s funny and believable as a dizzy friend. She actually reminds be of a couple of my wife’s girlfriends.

      I always see Aran in a “scared straight” sort of situation. No doubt he’s seedy, and not a very nice guy. But I think he knows, there’s a powerful “force for good” that’s just appeared (seriously, he can’t miss the Cleric of Lathander). Right when he has an enemy he can’t beat. Bonus, the government just really ticked her off by arresting her sister for a dumb reason. So play it straight (And I imagine little beads of sweat on his forehead as he follows through on this) and she *might* eliminate that unbeatable foe for you.
      There is another mod out there (“Choices” I think?) that lets you side with the Order of the Radiant Heart instead of thieves or vampires. But they ask you to kill all the thieves. I can’t do that, and I don’t think that’s a lawful and *good* thing to do! It might be different if they were all assassins. But death for all the thieves? Too much. Besides, it makes me laugh when a Paladin or good cleric partners with the thieves. No matter what Bodhi tries to tell you, the worst they will do to you is not practice full disclosure! I can live with that, I don’t practice full disclosure with them either!

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