DavesGaming

After resting up from yesturday’s big battles, we headed over to see our friend Mendes.

We took the radical approach of talking to the Merchant League about their findings and their charts. They agreed, in spite of our ethical concerns about Mendes, that they would also like to know what’s on that island and encouraged us to take the commission and check it out. I strongly suspect they expected it to be a costly and risky undertaking, and were less concerned about *our* safety. Hey, its what we do.

And as it turned out, Mendes had a small chartered cog ready to take us to the island.

We were told the trip would be long, several weeks each way. Khalid had warned us we were still considered *hot* in Baldur’s Gate, so the idea of disappearing for over a month was appealing.
As it turned out, I didn’t get seasickness! Hah! Amyntor did! And Imoen. But we all adjusted. Until we neared our destination.

We were about near the right location, when the boat started to come apart.

We all made it ashore in various states.

All our gear needed some cleaning. We did too, but that was lower priority.

When the storm passed we decided to head up the coast and see what there was to see.

Looked like maybe a castaway fishing village?
The people were a little odd. Surely they didn’t get many outsiders. Although we did meet one other shipwrecked sailer who’d been here many years.

We agreed to check this out, after a rest!
We spent a little time talking to villagers. They still had an oddly detached manner. We tried to befriend them by offering our help. They were very skeptical we could do much to fix anything. Although we did build quite a list of missing things they needed recovered, starting with a baby boy! Add in a sacred cloak (?), a toy doll, a fisherman’s body.
They have apparently grown used to not venturing out, at all.
Amyntor and I had noticed a greater than expected amount of evil among these villagers. Certainly not all, not even most. But quite a few of the older adults, like the leader and her soldiers. And not strongly evil like the demon we just fought! Maybe it was just more of a “me first” sort of survivalism? Whatever it was, we were wary of what we had found ourselves in.

In the morning we set out.

We avoided a small group of black bears, and fought a pack of wolves. Then we found a Sirine who had the body of the missing fisherman. She said he had tried to force himself on her. I sure wasn’t going to argue with that! But we begged the return of his body, and it was granted.

Minsc and Jaheira were sure that meant werewolves of some sort.

We fought several groups of werewolves on the island. They were not a major threat to us. Jaheira mentioned some elder or greater types might be impervious to most of our weapons, perhaps only Amyntor’s Flame Tongue (and some of Dyna’s spells) could hurt the big, bad wolves.
We came across a small rustic cabin. It was inhabited by an old elven mage. His name was Dradeel and he’d been shipwrecked here for hundreds of years. He was on Balduran’s crew. He seemed to teeter on the brink of madness. But he was not evil. He warned the wolves were everywhere. Their home was the old ruin of Balduran’s ship. He offered us an amulet that would help us in fighting “bad doggies”, and a dagger that was uniquely capable against the most dangerous sorts. In exchange, he wanted his spell book, which should be locked up near the ship’s main cabin.

We drank potions, and Dyna cast some preparitory spells. This looked to be some intense, close quarters fighting.
We entered through a large breach in the hull. We were immediately set upon by a werewolf leading a large pack of wolves.

It smelled like a kennel. And we could hear the shuffling of more feet and paws, and growls. More lay ahead. We would need to clear each deck, and expected to be met at every hatch or ladder.

That is not to their best strength! But we have learned how to protect each other. And apart from a few scary moments this all went pretty well.

This whole crew was intensly evil. Casting Detect Evil caused a painful flare, like a headache. There was no doubt how this would end. I would be fighting with the dagger Dradeel had given us, it was our only weapon apart from one of Amyntor’s swords that was sure to work here.
They still had a half dozen werewolves with them, so we had our hands full for a time.

But not as long as you might think. They were unused to fighting well-equiped and well trained opponents. Minsc and Jaheira tore into the pack, while the rest of us targeted the leaders.
In the end, we had found all the missing items the villagers wanted. Including a baby boy and Dradeel’s spell book. We quickly returned the book, and left Dradeel to relearn his Teleport spell.
Then we set out for the village. Jaheira said she could tell, we’d all been infected with lycanthropy. That had likely been the village leader’s goal all along. She offered that the cure was simple, we would have to kill the top of the bloodline within a month. Kaishas? This would all explain much of the odd vibe we got from the village. But they were not all as irredeemably evil as this northern pack had been.
So we need to assume our escape from this island cannot include the villagers. Sad. Only a few of them deserve to be trapped, but it would not be good to mix them with a general population.
Our first order of business was to return all the missing items, especially the baby boy!

Then we owed Kaishas a courtesy call.

Yeah, Jaheira was POed. Kaishas fled. We pursued her to a hidden cove, with a small boat ready for a trip.

But Jaheira thought the taint in our blood was still there. Dyna suggested the scholar Mendes had the same accent as the islanders. Well that made a lot of sense! We were likely meant to facilitate getting his pack off the island. We would need to have a long talk with Mendes.

He was most upset, we had killed his wife.
Killing Mendes did cure us of the taint.

We knew we had some tough problems to deal with next. But for tonight, we all felt glad to be together, and alive.

*****

I always like the Balduran’s Island quest. I know its not broadly well regarded. But for me, its usually the last thing I do before the end game chapter. Which means a party at the peak of its power. And the arogant werewolves are not remotely up to their boasts (“he will eat the marrow from your bones…”). They fall quickly.
These fights CAN be very difficult if you proceed to the island too early in the game. Or if you’ve failed to keep any weapons that can actually hurt the Greater Wolfweres. Although even then, the dagger is available *right outside* of the shipwreck. Brad was not even proficient in dagger, but between the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, the plus of the dagger, and a few other prep spells; she was able to inflict A LOT of damage. Between her and Amyntor (only his Flame Tongue sword could hurt the beast) they shredded the mighty Karoug, and Kaishas, and Mendes quite quickly.
It amuses me how often I’ve seen this fight considered too hard or unfair in some way. You literally know you’re facing lycanthropes well in advance.

The next update will take us to the end of the base game of BG1. I will likely do two posts for SoD, then on to BG2!