Gabrella has lived a safe and comfortable life. She is the much loved daughter of the great mage and sage Gorion (yeah, yeah, she knows she’s adopted). Her life has literally been sheltered. She knows this. Gabrella, Gabby, is not stupid.
And as it turns out she loves reading and learning. Which is a good thing for growing up in the greatest library of the Realms, and not even being allowed to travel or leave. She chafes under this a little, but she figured out many years ago that her father has a good reason for this. She doesn’t know what it is, and she does wonder sometimes. Her best guess is that Gorion has powerful enemies. She knows he is connected to the group known as Harpers. Oh so secret. She’s not supposed to know this. But again, she isn’t stupid.
All her life interesting visitors have stopped by to meet with, consult with Gorion. Many of them have met her, they often seem pleased or surprised to meet her. And that word, Harper is often said in whispers between her father and his visitors. In her love of reading she has encountered this word, and has a fair idea of what it means. She guesses one, or both of her parents were also important Harpers.
Apart from all that, Gabby reckons she’s lived a normal life. She is energetic and active when she is not reading, enough that her older father has a hard time keeping up. About ten years ago another child moved into Candlekeep. Imoen was the daughter of the new owner of the Candlekeep Inn. She was a little younger than Gabby, but they hit it off immediately. Inseparable best friends.
Gorion seemed pleased by this development, Gabby could expend her youthful energy chasing and playing games with Imoen. And it seemed Gorion knew Imoen’s father Winthrop. He was another old friend for father, it pleased Gabby they both got friends at the same time.
Not too long after came another change that would be more important in time. A new Watcher, Bull came to Candlekeep. He was way too old to play with you and Imoen, but he was kind and funny. Both girls liked him. He took the blame one time when Imoen broke a visitor’s wagon she’d been playing on. He even paid to get it fixed. You thought she was off scott free! But then he told Winthrop, said he wanted to avoid a scene with the visitor, but Imoen needed to learn discipline. The world of adults is very strange.
He was also there the time you broke your arm falling off the wall. He got you over to the infirmary, and sent a message to Gorion. And he stayed right there with you until Gorion showed up.
You said once Bull was like having a big brother. Gorion grumbled something about him being old enough to be your father. You never understood what he meant. Well, much later you maybe understood a little.
About three years ago Gorion told Gabby it was time to start thinking about professional training. He thought you had the ability to be anything you set your mind to. You were clearly smart enough to be a mage like him, but anything was open. Imoen thought you should both be rogues, you would explore the world together and spy on whatever you wanted to see… She made it sound fun.
Bull was the one who discerned your passion for spiritual learning, the god’s truth. He thought you would be a fine priestess of Lathander, or Tyr. He was the first to mention you also could be a great warrior. You weren’t big, but Bull said you went through life with the subtlety and finesse of a charging bull. Was he making a joke? Really he said, anything you want to be, you’ll be better if you start as a warrior.
That’s how you came to be the smallest warrior trainee any of the Watchers had ever seen. You started when you turned 18. You were 5’2” and 100 pounds soaking wet. You don’t know why everyone had to say that, several times. They all knew you were graceful and quick, which served you well in training. They also all knew you were tough and fearless, that also served you well. Everyone was a little surprised though, including yourself, that you were also stronger than most of the Watchers. Some big guys too. In sparring you could push them back, off their feet onto their rear. This seemed to really embarrass some of them. Although you did learn a problem with being a lightweight is they can often swat you off your feet with a low hit. Bull and some of the trainers really had to think through how to let you use your strength effectively, once the surprise has passed you really can’t drive back someone almost three times your weight. Of course, most people that big are stronger than you anyway.
But its been a fun part of your training, getting all the guys involved, and working through how to use your talents to best advantage in a fight. They say you are an unusual challenge. You *think* that’s a compliment.
*****
Bull trained to be a warrior from a young age. Its something he was built for, meant for. Funny, he’s not a violent man. But he’s quite good at violence when its called for. He’d heard adventuring was a good way to make money, so that was what he planned. He quickly discovered he disliked adventuring. Sleeping on a hard bedroll, exposed to the elements, eating who knows what. On his first, and last adventure, two of his companions were killed. Between the survivors they couldn’t afford to Raise both men, so they argued over who to Raise. One got raised and they were all broke. For a stupid adventure.
He joined the army, which suited him better for a time. Someone else had to worry about how to house him and feed him, he just did his job. But, eh, he got tired of fighting in squabbles between minor nobles.
He saw an advertisement for Watchers at the library of Candlekeep. A peacekeeper. That sounded better to him. So he went to Candlekeep and got a job. He’s been there a while now. Good enough at it to be a Sergeant. He hasn’t had to use brute force often. The threat of it a couple times when someone couldn’t get admission to the library, who thought they should. He’s broken up a few fights, mostly between drunks at the Inn. Usually two bookish sorts arguing over what kind of ink takes best on vellum… often he steps up to them and glares, and the fight is over.
One of the more fun parts of his time here has been the kids. There’s only two of them. Imoen and Gabby are a hoot. Active, precocious, funny. But both really good kids. In time he learned Gabby especially was a deep thinker, grilling him about Faerun… and what he thought about the nature of good and evil. Is that normal for kids? It was like being interrogated by some philosopher priest. She actually came to value his opinion and he helped steer her towards training as a warrior.
Then he had the problem of physically training an 18 year old girl, err woman. And sparring with someone who weighs less than some shields he’s carried. She took to it all surprisingly quickly. The biggest surprise being she was *a lot* stronger than she looked. Yourself and maybe three of the guys were clearly stronger than her. But that. Was. It. Have you ever consoled a 5’10” professional soldier who just got pushed around by a little girl… er, woman?
Apart from the “what the heck” aspect of it all, it led to some interesting thinking about strength, weight and leverage.
One other minor problem that has developed over the last couple years is how Gabrella has, uh, developed. You find yourself quite attracted to the young woman. Especially now as she’s finished her warrior training and is clearly moving into the adult chapter of her life. She’s twenty years younger than you, and you’ve known her since she was ten. Fortunately perhaps, you’re sure she’s always seen you as a big brother. But there are things that need to *never* be said….
*****
Gabrella has been in a rush all day. This morning Gorion told you to put some gear together, because this afternoon you were leaving Candlekeep forever. He said some mysterious strangers have been asking questions about *you*. That doesn’t make sense? You don’t even know anyone outside of Candlekeep. Your best guess is this all ties into your father’s Harper association. It must involve old enemies of his?
Regardless, you need to get gear together for a trip of unknown duration. First you found Bull, the thought of him not being around somehow makes you feel ill. And Imoen, also unthinkable. So you made sure both knew of Gorion’s plans. Bull has decided he’s not letting you out of his sight until you head off with Gorion. And he and Imoen will follow behind to look out for you. This makes you feel much better. You’ll need to think more at some point on how Bull became your first thought instead of Imoen.
*****
Neither of these characters ever existed in PnP, but I’ve used versions of them in CRPGs for many years. Maybe 20? They were originally inspired by fantasy portraits I found on line. They were posted here before in the IWD run Bull and the Slaves. The essence of them is a spunky young fighter (usually dualled to cleric) and a grizzled old warrior, as a May-December romantic couple. Obviously in the sort of games I play that last detail is “head canon”! But it will play into this write-up, at least a little.
Gabrella is a pretty idealized/maximized sort of character. The opposite of my previous run with Jill. As I’ve observed before, the slow to unfold back story for Gorion’s Ward easily justifies a larger than life sort of character. And to me, its being able to alternate between strong builds and weaker builds that is the most fascinating part of the game. Really of AD&D in general. The existence of both types of characters is what defines the terms (how can a character be strong, if we don’t also have weak?). And I love playing that contrast. So this should be a fun run in part because I just did that Jill run.
Gabby will start with specialization in short sword and dual wielding. By 6th level she will be up to High Mastery in short sword, and at 7th she will dual class to cleric. Then she will learn a few crushing weapons until 8th level when her fighter proficiencies will unlock and she’ll take Mastery in Dual Wielding.
Human Female, Neutral-Good, 1st level Fighter
15 – 19 – 16 – 14 – 18 – 18
Obviously she’s not strong in an absolute sense of the word. But average is 10.5. Average among guardsmen is presumably higher, but still below 15. Seriously, that is crazy strong for her size. I love fantasy adventure…
a young warrior woman (age 20, Slavic, fair skin, high cheekbones, short, cute, blue eyes, shoulder length light blonde hair).
Bull is a little less maximized. His scores represent a capable and experienced professional warrior, or maybe more of a professional peacekeeper. He’s good at fighting but would rather not hurt people.
He will start at 3rd level. Mastery in battle axe and specialized in Weapon and Shield Style (hey, if that’s how he’s fighting anyway…)
Human Male, Lawful-Good, 3rd level Fighter
18/94 – 11 – 18 – 11 – 14 – 15
veteran warrior (human male, French, age 40, big, muscular, burly, bald, greying brown beard, leather armor with iron studs)
Update 1
Our trip from Candlekeep was the stuff of nightmares. As dusk approached, we encountered a large armored warrior in company with a couple of ogres and ruffians. Gorion told me to run and I heard the large man say something about “I only want the kid”. What?! I heard the sound of a battle start as I ran right into Bull and Imoen. I was terrified like I’ve never been before, we had to get back to my father!
We cautiously set back the way I’d come. I wanted to run ahead, but Bull held me back. He said we were not charging back into an ambush, and he needed me to get my head on straight.
It took us 20 minutes or so. The battle was over. There were several dead here, including my father. I felt my legs collapse.
In the morning I felt a little better. We went back to the site of the battle. I led a prayer for Gorion. I was more aware of my weeping this time. I guess I finally got my head on straight. Then we resumed the trek for the Friendly Arms Inn. We were supposed to meet with “Khalid and Jaheira”, so Gorion said. I did not know these names.
Along the way we fought a mangy looking Gibberling. What a nasty and pathetic beast. I would laugh the whole thing off, but the scruffy looking thing broke my armor! What the heck! It was brand new. We had an extra suit of leather armor with us that we’d picked up back at the battle site, so I put that on. Its not a very solid feeling sort of defense, I think my own quickness will be better protection.
We made it to the Inn, and encountered a furious older woman. She said a couple of hobgoblins just outside the wall had taken some family heirloom ring from her. Bull really hates this sort of bullying, and I saw the look of the righteous guardsman come over his face. “We will get it for you ma’am.”
As we set back out around the gate I could see Bull looking at the two young women with him and maybe regretting his haste. I assured him “you trained us for this stuff Bull, we can handle it.”
They mourned Gorion with us that evening. Jaheira suggested, a foe who could take down Gorion was cause for concern. We could travel with them for now, we would all be stronger together. They were heading down south, to the border area with Amn, to investigate an iron mine that recently been puting out corrupted ore. I thought of the new armor that had just failed me. This could obviously be a big issue.
We got some new gear, hopefully a better suit of armor, and set out the next day.
We had a few combats the next day, a battle with an ogre seemed the highlight. With four warriors now, and Imoen shooting arrows, we seem to be a much stronger group.
We entered the town of Bregost towards dusk. It is not quite half-way to our destination.
As it turned out, “good mage” may have been optimistic. Neera was a Wild Mage. She always teetered on the edge of being out of control. Not to mention, I’ve rarely worked with a person with a weaker moral center. She was friendly, and good company, but I’m uneasy about trusting her too far.
There were some other fights for us in town. A scheming evil bard, a house full of spiders and a dwarven bounty hunter all demanded our attention. The bounty hunter is the most worrisome. He had a bounty note, specifically targeting me.
We set again in the morning, heading for Nashkel. We had several fights along the way. More hobgoblins, gibberlings, xvarts, some bandits. Ghasts were the worst. I’m already feeling more comfortable in combat. We all are as a team. And except for Neera this seems like a trustworthy and steady crew. Well, Khalid worries me. He’ll be loyal to his wife and to us, but he is plainly nervous in battle.
When we got to town we checked in with the mayor and got information about the iron problem. When we went to get a room at the small Inn we were attacked by another bounty hunter! This is getting tiresome.
I agreed this seemed urgent and we would help. Jaheira was more concerned about her mission. We decided she and her husband would search the area while we accompanied Minsc on his mission.
This led us to an archaic sort of mud-brick fortress. That was over run by gnolls.
Bull assured me it was a clean wound, we could get her back to town and she would likely be fine. But we had to accomplish our rescue quickly.
The lower parts of the fort only had a few guards in small groups, but as we came to the roof we were attacked by a large group, twenty of so gnolls en masse. That was an intense fight for a few minutes, and the gnoll leaders all concentrated their attacks on Bull. He was battered around some.
“This is new Gabby. I know you’ve been studying the works of Lathander’s clergy, but you can’t be a cleric already?”
I told him about my dream.
“Well that is interesting, tell us if you have any more. I’ve not encountered anything quite like that before.”
We needed to get back to Nashkel fast.
This we did, we met up with Khalid and Jaheira again, and got Neera raised at the temple in town. We thought it best to get Neera back to the Friendly Arms Inn where we could put her up for a longer rest. We rested a few days there, and left Neera, Khalid and Minsc as a fixed base of operations.
Leaving the Inn, we met another warrior on the road.
I met Ajantis, a Paladin from the Amnish city of Athkatla. Well, I’ve never met anyone from Athkatla before! “Join with us while we sort out this iron crisis.”
Bull looked concerned, I’ll need to ask him why later…
*****
A pretty good start I think. Gabby is right on the verge of third level. Bull and Imoen are 4th, the rest in between.
I’ve said before I’m a little tired of doing full write ups. It surprised me how much I had to say here. We’ll just see how this goes.
Update 2
We finally made it to the mine Jaheira had been wanting to investigate. We had devloped some practice as a team on our journey down from The Friendly Arm Inn. There’s been some grumbling about the team I chose to put together. It seems strange to me that I am seen as the team leader. I think literally any of the other five of us could assert control and I’d be fine with it, more of less. Maybe its just that Bull and Imoen back me? I feel bad about leaving Minsc and Khalid behind, but for exploring a mine the comes a point where more people is not better. And we do need someone paying attention to information, Friendly Arm Inn is a busy central location that makes sense for this.
The mine was mostly overrun with Kobolds. Deep down we also fought a ghoul and a couple giant spiders. And Grey Ooze? Eww. But we found a tough named Mulahy was running the operation, he was poisoning the ore, killing miners and causing general mayhem. We ended him and it seemed the right thing to do.
We returned to Nashkel with the information, and a sample of the ore contaminent he used. From there we had to rush back to Beregost. Phew! A lot of running around. We rested for a couple days, and settled on exploring the area as a good way to work on our teamwork. Eventually, we need to hunt down a bandit camp to the north. But for now its training, of sorts.
Bull and I are now sharing duties on point. Since he trained me, we seem to naturally function well as a team.
Update 3
The team is really coming together nicely. We’ve been back exploring more to the east of Nashkel for now.
I do hate how Bull always seems to draw the most attention in a fight. No doubt he’s tough and can take it, but he’s a big target. If I could get in front of him more often I can make them miss.
Ajantis was sort of a puppy I think. And no doubt he is a skilled warrior. But we don’t need four of us doing the same job at the front. And I think Bull will feel better with Ajantis gone. Still, I felt terrible sending him away.
A skilled archer does make sense. And Kivan is eager to get after the bandits. So that’s up next.
*****
First time I’ve used Ajantis at all with “NPC Project” installed. Right after I decided his time was up, he got into a talk with Jaheira about how [charname] was likely to let him go. It was funny, I’m not sure if there was a romance track getting started there? But it felt that way, and Gabby is not interested. Also, four pure melee types do get in each other’s way some in tight spaces. Usually if I have more than two, at least one will be a two-handed sword user (Minsc!) who fights from a step back. It matters.
I also wound up recruiting Kivan sooner than I’d planned, which means running up to the bandit camp sooner than I planned. But hey, that keeps it interesting.
Co-Pilot does have another new renderer available. This time I did one render (Ajantis’ dismissal) with “MAI-Image-1”. It does have a crisp realism to it. But it really struggles with ages. It is fun, especially when a render is causing fits, to switch the engine for a couple tries. It sometimes helps sort out what’s wrong. I did this on several of these, but ultimately only went with just that one. No OpenArt at all this time.
Update 4
We set off pretty quickly for where we thought the Bandit Camp had to be. We battled our way through the usual variety of beasties, and an increasing number of bandits.
As we came up to the edge of a semi-permanent encampment we were quickly noticed and a large number of bandit archers and hobgoblins set on us. Bull, Jaheira and I joined in melee…
Much of Kivan’s motivation in joining with us had been that the leader of these bandits, a half-ogre named Tazok, had murdered his beloved years ago. So it was anti-climactic when we entered the bosses tent and Tazok was not present. The lieutenants who were present were not a major threat.
We freed a prisoner named Ender Sai, who reported the bandits would seem to be getting orders from a hidden iron mine in the Cloakwood Forest. Possibly all at the direction of the Iron Throne? A merchant association I know little about.
We headed back towards the Friendly Arms Inn to prepare for our trek into the Cloakwood. But I felt some anxiety over a personal/personnel issue I had to deal with. Kivan may be flirting with me? Weird because he is motivated so much by the loss of his love? Oof. My sense on such things may be off. Growing up in Candlekeep I had little experience with potential interesting young males. But for the second time in a few days I find myself uncomfortable with the attention. Now I’m a big girl (Hah! “Not very…” Bull would say!), I could deal with this. But combine this with Kivan being so driven by anger, revenge, hatred. It all feels toxic to me. I suggested to Kivan he needs to go spend some time with clerical council, and get away from the killing for a time. That didn’t go over so well.
We were briefly down a body, but of course Minsc was still at the Inn.
The Cloakwood Forest was a long journey. It would take us several day to reach the deepest part where the Iron Mine was supposed to be. And it was a journey that involved a lot of fighting. We had to deal with several sorts of threats, Wyverns being the most dramatic. But giant spiders, bears, wolves and a twisted dryad were all challenges. Most fascinating were encounters with shadow druids.
We finally got to the mine. It was a surprisingly large installation for something so deep in the woods. We fought our way down into its depths, looking for their command and control. (If the bandits were getting orders from here, there has to be senior leadership here).
So we kept clearing the mine as we descended. Four layers down the construction changed. It was extravagently styled stone archetecture. Obviously magical in origin, likely the abode of a powerful mage.
No sooner had she finished than we heard the sound of a mage casting a spell. It was fast! Contingency or Trigger or something? I’m not really up on Arcane magic. But suddenly the whole corridor around us erupted in tangling vines and a noxious vapor cloud. All at once.
I hit him as hard as I could as quick as I could, very glad I’d drunk a Giant Strength potion a few minutes back. I was fully expecting Bull or Jaheira to come up right beside, or Imoen to launch an arrow over my head. My next swipe, with my off hand, connected solidly and seperated essential parts from the evil mage.
I took a deep breath as he dropped silently to the floor and turned around. My entire team was incapacitated in that vile cloud behind me. He held my breath and started helping them get free. In a moment the spells ran out and we were all free.
I looked at my friends, coughing, or untangling themselves, slowly getting to their feet. And I looked at the body of “Davaeorn”, the mage who nearly destroyed us.
We began the long trip back out of the woods. It took us several days, but it all seemed much easier now. We all enjoyed the time together as friends and companions. We talked about heading up to Baldur’s Gate next. That was where the Iron Throne was located, and that seemed to be our next point to investigate.
When we got back to the Friendly Arms Inn we spent a few days relaxing together. Jaheira appreciated time with her husband. We laughed some with Neera who was still recovering from being briefly dead. And I had some things on my mind…
“What’s on your mind Gabby?”
“I’ve been thinking about how much I appreciate steadiness, humor, maturity…”
Yeah, we’ll be talking more often.
*****
A bit of serendipity there towards the end. SCS is still comparatively new to me. Davaeorn surprised me when he fired that spell trigger. No joke, it took out the whole party except Gabby. But she cut him up fast, before he could cast another spell. Really WOW!
Now I fudged the narrative a shade, it was while clearing out Dave’s quarters Gabby gained the last experience that kicked her up to 7th level fighter. As I said at the start, she immediately dualed to Cleric. And yes, I used EEKeeper to give her the Cleric of Lathander kit. Cheating, don’t care. She will be able to pick up her swords again when she reaches 8th level cleric (a CDTweaks adjustment).
I could also mention I skip over a lot of details in this write up. The southern part of the map (except Durlag’s Tower) has been cleared. I had once considered drawing out some Bull/Gabby tension for a while. But the thing is, apart from observing it matters to me that my characters are loved and have good friends/family relationships, I’m not really much good at writing a romance. Add to that, what seemed like a lot of flirting coming from NPC Project characters (did I read that right?) got me thinking Gabby had been pushed into making a decision. And Bull was never “not interested”. He was just concerned his young friend was more likely to prefer younger company. And speaking as a guy with a younger wife, I’d say the perception of an age difference can change a lot based on other issues in the relationship (what once seems like a big deal, can become not a big deal when the time is right).
And I should mention, the render of Minsc hugging Gabby is the new AI at Co-Pilot, MAI-Image-1.
Update 5
Heading up towards Baldur’s Gate we stopped by the home of a young Priestess of Umberlee, a foul tempered goddess of the oceans and storms. Such things should always be approached cautiously, the priesthood does much that’s vicious and evil in Faerun. But the divine should always be dealt with carefully. I have no interest in crossing a priestess who may be righteous in her anger.
Indeed, it seems the complaints against her came from fishermen who were overfishing and had taken something of her mother’s. We sorted this all out, no party was completely happy but at least we prevented further bloodshed.
Next we came to Ulgoth’s Beard, a small fishing village just down the coast from Baldur’s Gate. We looked into some news and rumors and have a few things to look into. Of immediate concern, a mage asked us to recover a cloak. Which resulted in us being transported to a frozen rock of island before we’d even sorted out all the details.
But we did find the missing cloak, and immediately were transported back to Ulgoth’s Beard.
From there we set out for the big city. Right at the front gate we were met by Scar, the commander of the Flaming Fist (the City’s military force). He had heard of our adventures to the south and talked with us about a few things we should look into for him. He offered to pay. As far as I’m concerned we’re still following leads that started with my father’s death. So yeah, we’re in.
We decided to start by just exploring the city, learning the lay of the land in a way. I understand its far from the largest city in the Realms, but WOW! Its like nothing I’ve seen before.
During our exploration we were threatened by a couple of low rent thieves. I really thought nothing of it at first.
This all led to a lot of running around! But in the end, we’re still alive.
Then we encountered some Priests of Oghma. These are the clerics of knowledge and wisdom who were always a huge part of my upbringing. I will always take notice of them, even if such is not my primary path. They showed us some sort of plague, a rot that was affecting all their books.
This led us into the sewers. Initially we battled were-rats and carrion crawlers. The sorts of nuisance you expect to find in the sewers.
An ancient Temple of Moander, the God of Decay, Corruption and Rot. He’s among the dead powers, but such evil seems to lurk and resists staying dead.
Worse, Moander was not the true source of what was going on.
Now we stand before the Seven Suns, the merchant consortium Scar asked us to look into. I guess that means we’re done goofing off.
*****
A few thoughts.
Gabby is up to 7th level in cleric already. That went fast! She’s been on point doing melee the whole time. Really she’s already pretty dangerous and she hasn’t even unlocked her fighter levels yet. Bull has been *more* dangerous through this chapter, but Gabby is number two on the team. Not bad!
I’ve settled in on two changes to Gabby’s description for renders that I’m pretty happy with. First sounds small, but I’ve changed her hair from “light blonde” to “pale blonde”. Small difference right? It gives her a more consistent slightly scruffy look, not so model-perfect. I like it.
The second is her armor. She’s been wearing the Ankheg Plate. I’ve finally settled on a descriptor that is more or less reliable on the look, its “enameled green plate armor”. But on my last update the AI added some gold ornamentation to the armor that I liked. But I wanted it to be consistent and appropriate for Gabby. So I’ve added “gold embossed sunburst motif” that seems to work quite well.
I think the next update will come pretty soon.
Update 6
We started our first mission for Scar.
On investigation, it turned out the business had been over-run by dopplegangers. We had found Scar’s buddy as one of the few actual survivors. Dopplegangers are an insidious threat. They are not fearsome once exposed, but exposing them is the trick. This group was outed by hunger! Its a good clue when someone wants to eat you that something is out of sorts.
Scar was thankful, and next asked us to look into some disappearences in town.
Yeah, more fun in the sewers.
After this Scar’s interest turned to the Iron Throne. He’d looked into the documents we gave him, and he agreed there was serious cause for concern. So we were directed to use our usual subtlety on investigation.
We resolved to simply head up to the bosses’ office.
We did not find any helpful documentation, but questioning survivors pointed us back home, to Candlekeep.
The next day we went into the library. We met the leaders of the Iron Throne and exchanged unpleasant words. That does *not* serve our purpose. We need to know what they are up to…
One of the monks told me to look to Gorion’s quarters, he had left something for me.
I still have plenty of friends at Candlekeep. Tethtoril was a dear friend, and the head man of the Keep. He sent us to the catacombs for an escape. We did get away.
We slew many of the beasts, and came clear of Candlekeep near the coast to the rear. Then it was back to the Friendly Arms Inn. We’ll need to consider our next move.
*****
Funny, this was not a huge length of game time. But this post kept getting longer with renders! Plenty of drama, and moments that seemed deserving of attention. Some of these are thematically very similar to things I’ve done before. The game hasn’t changed much.
Update 7
Gabrella unlocked her fighter levels just as the team escaped Candlekeep. So suddenly, she’s back to dual wielding short swords and being a 7th level fighter. She has the Gauntlets of Ogre Power now, Minsc and Bull both have exceptional strength and Jaheira gets all the strength potions. *Very* strong melee unit.
*****
Being wanted criminals, we decided it was a fine time to go explore Durlag’s Tower.
Unfortunately for Ike, he was soon killed by a Demon Knight who seemed to take issue with tours in his domain. Hunting down that demon will be a good excuse to explore the tower.
The lower levels of the tower got a lot tougher. Several were hard enough we set camp in some dark and scary corners to recover.
We found and slew the Demon Knight on the lowest sub-level of the tower. He held the dagger we’d been searching for. But it was stolen from us on our return to Ulgoth’s Beard. It wasn’t hard to spot the home with demonic cult activity.
We destroyed the cult and the demon they summoned. Then we met with the eccentric scholar Mendes, we had lawfully gained the maps and charts he wanted. His willingness to suggest a more nefarious course of action left us suspicious of him. But when he suggested we lead the search for Balduran’s Ship, well, it gave us an excuse to disappear for a few weeks when we were still wanted for murder.
But we would up shipwrecked, and the island seemed to be inhabited by two warring factions.
Werewolves are funny opponents. They are far from the most fearsome things we’ve faced, but they always think they are. You would think, after we’ve slain a dozen or more, they would learn more caution.
There was a boat on the island we could take back home. Mendes himself was the last of the werewolf bloodline and had to be put down.
[Gabrella’s naration breaks off here. I’m sure we’ll get her back for more at a later time]
*****
There are three of the toughest sort of Werewolf to fight that need special weapons, only Minsc was proficient in the sword he had. Gabby had the dagger, in most PnP games I’ve played there would be some sort of “related weapon” rule. Since she has High Mastery in Short Sword, she might use Dagger as a Master or Specialist? But we have no such thing in the EEs.
But it hardly matters. Gabby and Bull both are high enough level to have a low thaco, and they have good strength bonuses. The fights are not hard.
Some happy accidents with the renders this time. My intent for Minsc and Jaheira talking was Boo perched on Minsc’s head. Just a silly sort of moment. But that one came up with Boo on Jaheira. It immediately made me think of their “NPC Project” exchange when Boo gets into Jaheira’s pouches. Very funny. So this worked out well.
Then Gabby and Bull, oof, those two! My idea was for her enthusiastically knocking him over out of frame. What can I say, I like physical humor. The renderer (Kling2.5) had its own ideas! So we’ll just give them some time. I have no idea why this inn is so popular with warriors.
Update 8
Leaving Ulgoth’s Beard we had come up with a plan of keeping invisible until we get to Scar or Duke Eltan. We have plenty of potions and Imoen has a ring, so this should not be a problem.
We quickly learned how much upheaval the city had seen since we left. Scar had been murdered, Duke Eltan poisoned. We found the Duke, he was in the care of healer who was in fact a doppleganger keeping him sick. We fixed that!
We left the Duke with a friend of his, the Harbor Master, and returned to the Iron Throne building to once again look for incriminating evidence against Sarevok. We did learn some assassins he’d hired were in the Underceller.
They were a husband and wife team, he (Slythe) engaged with swords. We could hear his wife (Krystin) casting, but not see her. She was apparently invisible and was prepping herself.
Apart from wanting to kill us, these two had plans to attend the coronation and kill the other Dukes.
We took their invitations and set out for the palace.
Why anyone thought this guy would make a good Duke is beyond me. I think the imagery someone embraces says something about what’s in their heart, look at this guy, seriously.
I would say we exposed his dirty dealings, but his dark plans were exposed raw at this point. We disrupted his doppleganger attack and set out after him.
Which led us directly to Sarevok. After all this, he was not such a hard fight. And the support team he had did not exercise good tactics. They lost hard.
Which led to us enjoying some down time at the palace, we were the guests of the Dukes.
One of them, Liia Jannath had noticed Imoen’s budding interest in magic and offered to take her on as a trainee.
Trust me, we had some very good times too. The rest of our team, our friends all went off their own ways.
Soon we had a new crisis. For several weeks refugees had been pouring into Baldur’s Gate. They were escaping a Crusade being waged to the north, led by Caelar Argent, for unknown purpose. We’ve seen a lot of people in desperate straits, pushing local resources to the breaking point.
Then one night we were attacked in the Palace. Imoen was stabbed and poisoned. We slew the attackers, but found they carried a portrait of me! And carried tokens marking them as Crusaders.
Game on.
We’ll need a new team, and Imoen will be in no shape for travel for a while.
We all thought we’d need a scout, since we were missing Imoen. We had the Rogue Safana with us briefly, she under contract with the Flaming Fist. But honestly, I didn’t like her. All sleeze and filthy inuendo. But we’d been told she was at the Elfsong Tavern so we thought we’d head that way. In my mind I was thinking we’d look around and see if a better option presented.
There were a number of refugees at the Elfsong.
This made me very happy. Erato was obviously a better fit with us than Safana had been. And a cleric too, bonus!
We set out the next morning. When we stopped at our first camp we set out to survey the area. Talking to Captain Corwin I asked if she would join with us for a while.
*****
Erato is an NPC of my own design. I have her installed via Argent77’s NPC Generator Mod. She will always be available for me in SoD at the Elfsong Tavern, for games where I want her. Which has now been the last three runs.
Half-Elf Female, CG
9 – 17 – 15 – 11 – 18 – 17
She comes aboard as a 6th level Cleric/Thief, very close to 7th level thief. But with no equipment at all. We have all of Imoen’s gear so equiping her is no problem.
*****
I expect I’ll get one more update in about a week for all of SoD. Then things get crazy for a few weeks with the holidays. Maybe only a couple for all December? I’m not going away! Things should get back to normal in January.
Update 9
We made it to our first camp just short of the Coast Way Crossing. My team set out to explore the area, south of the camp…
This really made me laugh. I would have called her a vaguely annoying spoiled brat a week ago. Then I found out she’d annonymously joined Flaming Fist as they were gearing up to march out. I guess I should qualify that a little, *everyone* seems to know exactly who she is. And she does still act like a princess who expects everything to be entertaining. But seriously, she joined the army on the eve of War and has apparently learned some lessens already. So huh, there’s that.
Still, we suggested she get back to camp before Corporal Duncan develops an ulcer.
As we continued reconnoitering the area we found a Dwarven expedition working in some old mine? They’d been pretty beat up by a mass of undead and reported one of their leaders was missing. We offered to head in for a look around. One of the mineshafts transitioned into a library, with a larger installation beyond.
The missing Dwarf had become a Lich. My first thought was that was a bit beyond us. We reported back to the other dwarves, they had a potent anti-magic device we could use against their fallen comrade. Which we did.
So we killed a Lich, with some major help.
The next day we approached the Coast Way Bridge to see if we could deal with a small force of Crusaders present. They panicked on seeing us and blew up the bridge. Wow!
The ruined bridge meant we’d need to detour up river to the large Boareskyr Bridge. This has an ugly connection to my bloodline, and the trip came with some forboding. We had heard the bridgefort was under seige by the Crusade. Our friend Jaheira had joined up with the army at this point, she reported her husband was inside with the defenders. But she thought that there was a magical way in, that involved a rune stone that had been taken to an old temple nearby.
We were then able to get into the Bridge Fort and coordinated a break out with us bringing in the Flaming Fist.
We destroyed the Crusaders and brought both groups of soldiers together.
Things took a bad turn when I was given the honor of leading us across the bridge. I was attacked by … something? Maybe an echo from the past? But I felt it descend on me, it wanted to tear me apart. I fear it almost succeeded. But I held this storm of wrathful energy inside myself. I am convinced this protected everyone around, of course those I love most were nearest to me.
And this all caused some uproar in the army.
I’ve considered removing her from the team, but I hope to show her the error of her thinking. I’ve met honorable half-orcs, friendly kobolds. Even werewolves. She seriously needs to get over this. Lathander trusts me, who is she to doubt?
We had a long trek to the coalition camp laying seige to Dragonspear. Word of what had happened at the bridge proceeded me. We set out to explore the area again, to stay out of camp.
The toughest part of it was penetrating a river cavern that the Crusade was using to keep supply and communication going past the seige. We learned a fair amount here, especially the pure darkness at the heart of the Crusade. Caelar may be an idealistic nitwit, but her chief lieutenant is a monster. And ultimately this could result in demons being unleashed into Faerun. So we have to cut this evil out.
We had no sooner returned from our exploring than to find the Crusade was launching an all out attack on our camp. A lot of fighting. The end result could only be good for us, bad for them.
This led to our direct assault on the castle, and my own team chasing Caelar and her lieutenant Hephernaan into the Abyss itself.
Caelar joined with as the full evil of what she’d accomplished became clear. Better late than never! We destroyed the fiend, Bull finished him off with a massive blow from his axe!
We were all heroes for a few minutes. Then… Skie was murdered, I saw it in a dream, and I awoke next to her body.
*****
A few notes. I still enjoy the fights in SoD. But I think I really dislike all of the new NPCs. I may not even recruite Corwin again. She may be powerful but she ticks me off! Its funny, I like the writing on the older characters, Dynaheir talks in a garbled old English, and gets herself confused easily. Minsc has some funny new quips. I’ve liked Jaheira when I’ve used her. Neera is a hoot whether you recruit her or not. Maybe next run I’ll take Jaheira again instead of Corwin.
These last few updates I’ve been working on armor. Last time I talked about Gabby with the Ankheg plate. So towards the end here she get’s Deros’ plate, that improves her armor class another spot and gives her 50% fire resistence. I just switched the description from Green to red. It seems to interpret it all a little differently just with the change of color. Maybe a little darker and less sunny and happy? But I like it well enough.
Bull has been wearing “The Practical Defense” since Durlag’s Tower. I’ve been describing it as “Silver plate armor with gold filagree”. The icon in the game looks more ornate than many of the renders here give me, but if you read the description a slightly more subtle ornamentation is fitting.
Then Erato went from “Blue leather armor with silver embroidered Lion Rampant motif” (the “celestial lion” is a symbol of Tymora) to the green dragon scale. I chose to render that as “green leather scale armor with silver lion rampant motif”.
I considered if Gabby and Erato’s armors should retain their devices when they switched armors. Or if I should change them up? Style wise I wanted to keep the symbols similar for the characters. But how to justify it? Well, it occurs to me there are Cantrip level spells that could probably do this. So if say Gabby arranges to have a few sunburst style devices made up by an armorer or jeweler, a mage (1st level or better!) could stick them in place, as desired, more or less permanently. Maybe they all have to be reattached everytime they get hit by a Dispel! But I like this. Its a simple solution available to any party with a mage. I can imagine it being a thing where adventurers all have devices, maybe holy symbols, political/national affiliation even team logos; that they attach to armor or clothing.
I am stupid busy coming up, so expect this to be the last update for a couple weeks. I’ll be back then with the start of Shadows of Amn.
Update 10
Moving on to Baldur’s Gate II. Apart from apologizing for being a little slow (and really, I may only get one more update in before 2026) Gabrella is ready to lead her team into the next adventure.
This run stands in contrast to my previous with Jill, who was a good hearted dingbat. Gabby is strong and in charge. Still good at heart, I don’t run them any other way, but Gabby will pointedly make things right in Faerun. And she will build a team that she can trust and rely on. In short, she’s a good and thoughtful leader.
Without further delay…
*****
I’ve gone in and out of consciousness while the madman runs his tests on me. He was ugly enough in his hooded cloak, I really wish he’d cover up again. oof.
I don’t know where I am or what the status of my team is. Where is my friend and sister? And my heart breaks with worry for Bull. I know he’s somewhere nearby in this madman’s lab, I’ve heard his voice. But somehow that makes things worse not better.
And my friends Minsc and Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheira. We were all together a short time ago. Or has it been months? I loose track.
I hear an explosion in the distance and my tormentor runs off.
Quickly, we set about rounding up the team.
We find some older gear in an adjoining room.
As we search the surrounding area, we are forced to battle the denizens of this large madman’s fortress. There are goblins, Duergar Dwarves, Mephits and a few others barring our way. We battle and defeat those who would hold us here. And gradually we find a some better gear, a few better things. Still, we’ve lost a lot, and that will weaken us tactically.
After searching every corner, we find a transit portal. Going through leads us to a storeroom, a place we’d not seen yet.
Exploring more of the base, we find Khalid’s disected remains on a table in another storeroom. He’s obviously been there a while, and seems beyond any help magic can provide. We have lost so much! Khalid and Dynaheir are the dearest part of that. I grieve with Jaheira. We will escape here and repay our captor.
We do finally see daylight and follow it to an exit. Right into a battle. The madman battles a group of thieves, whom he defeats even though Imoen tries to contribute some firepower to their side. But this barely gets going when a several mages teleport in. After Irenicus, our nemisis, stands down they proclaim this was “an unsanctioned use of magical energy” and arrest Irenicus… and Imoen. Yet again we’ve lost what is most precious. I grasp Bull tightly and sob. Just a moment. Its all we have.
Jaheira recognizes where we are. The capital city of Amn, Athkatla. Where Arcane magic use is illegal. Swell. We need an outfitter, someone who caters to adventurers. Jaheira knows just the place and it isn’t far, so we set off.
Along the way we come across a circus tent with desperate young boy out front. His mom is still in the tent, but something happened and its all shut down now. We talk to a guard who informs us something went horribly wrong inside. We offer to enter and sort it out.
The inside is far larger than the outside. We first meet an ogre with a young woman’s voice. She says its all an illusion, this is all illusion. Next we meet a spider who claims to be the mother of the young lad outside. And then a couple of peasants attack us, and change into orcs. Wow! Horribly wrong is an understatement.
We put down the little tyrant, which breaks all the spells. There have been several deaths here, but we can reunite mother and son.
We finish our short trek over to The Advenurer’s Mart. We have accumulated a fair amount of loot from escaping Irenicus’ base and now the little circus. We sell this for some better gear. We can make sure everyone has at least one magic weapon they are proficient in, and we get a few other items of immediate use.
We also get a contact who may be able to help us restore Skie. She is a complete innocent who was destroyed purely to frame me for murder.
We also meet one Gaelan Bayle. He offers the help of an (undefined) powerful group of people who can help us secure Imoen’s release. It will cost us 20000 gold, far more than we currently have. We do have the ability to acquire such funds pretty quickly, although I bristle at this delay.
As we leave Gaelan, Yoshimo confirms suspicions. This was the local thieves guild that reached out to us. I know of this group, the Shadow Thieves. They have a fearsome reputation. But I have a deep seated distrust of the local authorities just now, they’re the ones who took Imoen. I will get my friend and sister returned.
Jaheira has suggested we head to the Copper Coronet. A seedy dive bar, where we can likely find work of the sort that will earn us some money.
On entry I suggest Yoshiomo head his own way for now. We will check in later and will likely need his skill set once again. We then quickly notice a young woman looking for help to free her family home from some sort of monster invasion. Well, that sounds right up our alley.
We are quickly distracted by noticing how awful and evil this place is. They are running illegal gladatorial games in back. We put a stop to it and free the slaves. Who inform us their children are held across town. We all head out and put a stop to this monstrosity. Nalia in full agreement this demands attention.
After resting up we head out to free Nalia’s home next. This led to a series of mis-adventures. It could almost be funny how it took us three days to get out of town, but Jaheira (and all of us) are apparently now enemies of the Harpers?! Jaheira is sure this not true, but locally it seems to be.
We finally get to Nalia’s “home”, which is actually a good sized castle. It has been over-run by trolls and others.
The end was heartbreaking for our new friend Nalia. Her father, most everyone she knew, is dead. The castle is trashed. Nalia made an odd suggestion. She is currently trapped in an unwanted betrothal, that will lead to her family lands passing to a noble family she scorns. She offers to give Bull and I her lands, while she still has some executor authority. Apparently in Athkatla a mage cannot hold such title? Wierd.
But I agree on the grounds she stays with us and helps us lead and learn how things are done. And she will always have a home here, we will never remove her from her family legacy.
After a few days of gathering up pieces, Bull and I decide to host a memorial for the lost, and celebration of new beginnings. All in the De’Arnise lands are invited. It will be a casual event, and we will provide the food.
The event starts somber, as Nalia is not the only resident who has lost loved ones. And physical damage was great, to structures, livestock, crops… a real mess.
Then we pledge funds to start repairs and restoration (we still have so little ourselves! And we have other needs. But this is profoundly important). Bull and I are announced as the new arms masters who will defend this land. We are formally joined to this responsibility.
Bull reminds me when a couple years back, he said I went through life with the subtlety and finesse of a charging bull, it was only fitting that now I was Mrs Bull. Hah! My goofball.
*****
I’ve done a few other things not mentioned. Hopefully I’ll get one or maybe two more updates in this year. But things are still pretty busy for a while with Christmas, New Years, and all the related family and friend events coming up. I only mention this to say things may seem to be slowing down, but I expect in January my posting (and actual time for playing the game!) will pick up again.
I am using the MAI-Image 1 generator a little more often now. It is outstanding at doing exactly what I tell it to do. And the very realistic human figures work very well for my prefered look. On the minus side, the colors are more drab and don’t suit the colorful version of fantasy I often like. This carries over to say it doesn’t do fantasy characters and effects as well either. But when I think of it I will try to use a tag showing which generator was used when.
DavesGaming 
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