DavesGaming

In the morning we set out for Baldur’s Gate. We had talked this through, and I was pleased we had Jaheira with us. She was somewhat familiar with the city. Not that she was a fan. But due to recent events, and an abundance of caution, we decided today we would walk north to the city, and go past the great bridge and city gate. This way we would walk the length of it on the far side of the river, and see the size of the walls. Jaheira wanted to impress on us the size of the place. Then we would stop at the village of Ulgoth’s Beard for the night. And return to actually enter the city the next day.

I’m not sure all this was necessary? But the idea of doing a little recon before we dove in seemed reasonable.

So we followed the main road from the Inn north. This was all gentle hills and a few farms.
Then, well, we encountered our first Ankheg. I’m not sure words can really prepare you for the first time you encounter such a beast.

We learned this was Ankheg mating season, and they were highly active in this area. We battled and slew a dozen? A farmer reported his son was missing, we searched the area and found his remains in an Ankheg tunnel. I don’t know what precautions locals must learn to take? But sadly this ended poorly for this family.

Nearby we also met a group of fishermen who had a serious problem… we were led to believe.

I heard Jaheira snort at this. The goddess Umberlee has some unpleasent epithets. She is a goddess of the water and water storms. Sort of, everything dark and scary about the deeps. My initial reaction was Umberlee = bad. But you know, its always wise to proceed carefully where the gods and their clergy are concerned.
We determined the attitude of “looking into things” was the safest way to proceed.

We learned from her these men had been over-fishing, and had stolen a Summoning Bowl that belonged to her late mother. I was chilled at the thought those men wanted us to kill a child.
We returned to them and demanded they return the bowl they had stolen. We took it and I suggested they work harder at finding a way to make amends to Umberlee.
We returned the bowl to the child. I was uncertain about leaving her in a derilict house, but she was right across the river from Baldur’s Gate. We would ask when we entered the city tomorrow if anything could be done for her? Maybe at a greater temple of Umberlee?

Speaking of the City, we’ve been looking at it for the last couple hours.

As we discussed, we continued north to Ulgoth’s Beard. This was a small town, smaller even than Nashkel. But it did have one very nice inn and a high end merchant who carried a nice stock of minor magic items. We expended a *lot* of our accumlated wealth in this little town. We also picked up a few side missions. An old dwarf at the inn told us a family heirloom, the “Soultaker Dagger” was rumored to be lost in Durlag’s Tower. A great old ruin to the south of here.
We met Therella, a woman grieving her missing son. He had run off with some adventurer friends to loot Durlag’s Tower. Why do I have a feeling we’ll be ending up at the Tower at some point?
A foreigner (none of us could place his accent) named Mendes reported with excitement that a merchant had recently sighted an old shipwreck that bore the colors of Balduran’s old ship. Yeah, the guy who founded Baldur’s Gate. He has been missing almost 300 years. He desperately wanted sea charts to find that wreck and begged our help. I agreed with the stipulation we will not be *stealing* those charts from anyone!

Also a funny thing, a powerful mage, Shandalar calls this little village home. He asked us to retrieve his cloak (?). Okay? He teleported us off to a frozen rock in the middle of the ocean!
It was apparently a sort of mage trap (the reason Shandalar wouldn’t go himself?).

We had to battle through the caves, the tunnels, and defeat a number of demented mages.

We finally located the cloak, and teleported right back to Shandalar. That was an eccentric adventure.

The next day, Baldur’s Gate!

Since Elminster himself sold Boo to Minsc, does that mean Boo really is…
Elminster would neither confirm nor deny.

We soon came across a proper Temple of Lathander. Amyntor and I had promised each other something years ago. And the rush of these last weeks made it impossible to do things right. We ran right into that temple and found a priest.

*****

This update covers much less ground than the previous one did, and yet the team grew significantly in several ways. Brademante and Amyntor each made 7th level Paladin. That’s a big level for warriors, they can now land two effective attacks per round. Minsc is only a couple hundred experience away from 7th level Ranger, expect that to come very early in the next update.
Jaheira gained two levels (!), actually one in each class. So she is now a 6tth level Fighter and a 7th level Druid. A good Druid level that unlocks 4th level spells.
Dynaheir bought or found a few good 4th level spells; Emotion-Hope, Stoneskin and Vitriolic Sphere.
And Imoen made 8th level Thief.

Then there was a lot of stuff we bought. Between the merchent in Ulgoth’s Beard and Sorcerous Sundries, that’s a lot of good stuff suddenly available. I mentioned a few scrolls for Dyna, plus many potions and a lot of ammunition. Bigger items being the Cloak of Displacement (for Brad) and the Greenstone Amulet (for Amyntor).

Expect it will be a few days before I post again, maybe I’ll be done with the whole City by then?