DavesGaming

The Dukes were deeply appreciative of us stopping Sarevok before he gained real power within the city. They dubbed me “The Hero of Baldur’s Gate”. It is funny how these things go. I mentioned a few times it was a whole team effort, I would have gotten nowhere without support, Minsc and Jaheira suffered the worst injuries in the final confrontation… To no avail. I was told a hero was needed. As the face of the team, it would be me. I have heard before this is how recognition often works for armies and such groups. As the smallest member of the team I find it all too much. But I do appreciate being in the good graces of the ruling Dukes.

Although Duke’s Eltan and Belt would also be counted among our friends.
Duke Silvershield is tougher to figure. He is polite and “correct”, but I get the feeling he does not like me. We’ve had a few minor dealings with him, we had previously delivered the unpleasent news to his home that we’d found evidence of his only son being slain by bandits. And we’ve met his daughter Skie a couple times, she seems bored and spoiled. I think overprotected? In need of a purpose in life? But its not my place to say anything.

Duke Jannath told me privately that Imoen is gifted, and she has learned a great deal from our friend Dyna. But she has a few misconceptions she needs to get around. Liia is sure she can help Imoen get where she needs to be, with time and study. She thinks our time adventuring had too much built in distraction for Imoen to learn clearly.

While Imoen and the Duke (amusing that in Baldur’s Gate they don’t use the feminine of the title? I find that a little offensive!) are working on studies, we learned a follower of Sarevok was still held up in a part of the catecombs. Her name was Korlasz, and she was building a new “army”. So far, apparently just a small gang for unknown purpose. But Duke Eltan suggested my team was better suited than his Flaming Fists to routing out trouble makers like this.
I was happy to have something to do. He would send along a squad of soldiers to make things all “official”. But Imoen was officially *not* working as a scout for us. *No Distractions* Duke Liia proclaimed!

It was good we accepted Safana’s aid, exploring into an abandoned tomb chasing an outlaw gang led by a mage. We fought a lot of undead, a few groups of mercenaries in Korlasz’ employ.

Seriously though, I want to get that woman a nice heavy coat.

I’m really regretting that the art of Backstab was not a part of the Paladin curriculum. Although I’m pretty sure I can take her without it.

Dyna launched a Fireball into her backfield while the rest of us hit Korlasz herself, she actually yielded quickly. I was much relieved, this all involved a lot less bloodshed than most such adventures.

A distraction for an afternoon was nice, but It was nice to be done. I told Imoen it was not the same without her, I don’t want to do that again.
Back to the palace to continue with our earned rest.
It is also worth mentioning a number of refugees have been pouring into Baldur’s Gate. A crusade of sorts is forming to the north of here. Led by a warrior named Caelar Argent, known as “The Shining Lady”. She is drawing many allies to her cause, whatever it is? It is causing much upheaval and destruction, which had led to the influx of displaced people. It is starting to strain the systems and infrastructure of this great city.

We’ve actually shared a few laughs. I still think her core values most involve women’s fashion. But she told me an interesting secret, she has joined the Army. The Flaming Fists. Huh. The vapid young woman joined the army at a time of crisis, and is likely to be sent out soon. And she’s in a better mood because of it. There may be more to her than I thought. And we are NOT to tell her father. Oh this could be funny.

We have been at the Ducal Palace for almost a month. Amyntor and I have much enjoyed some time to ourselves. Imoen continues to study and learn. Jaheira and Khalid went off to get some time to themselves, I don’t think either of them enjoyed down time at the Palace! And Dyna says her exploration of these lands must continue, so she and Minsc took their leave to plan their next adventure.
Its starting to feel a little lonely around here.

Until one night, Imoen came into our room and said she’d heard some noises. Like footsteps in the hallway?

There were three attackers, we slew them quickly while yelling for help. Soon Duke Jannath came up the stairs, I begged her help for Imoen. We heard sounds of more fighting downstairs now.

We restored calm soon enough. They wore markings of Caelar’s Crusade. We were mostly lucky on casualties, only one person was seriously hurt.

They pretty quickly had her stable. The worst of it was cured. But it would take time for the poison to be clear out of her system. For now she would remain unconscious.

Oh yeah, we’re going. But for now my team is my husband and I. I asked if anyone knew where all my crew was. Minsc and Dynaheir were still in town at the Three Kegs Inn. Corwin said Safana was at the Elfsong Tavern. No one else I really knew was around.
Minsc and Dyna would be a huge help. Safana would not be my choice for a scout, and we would need to replace Jaheira, our healer.

The number of refugees around the city was painfully obvious now. A lot of people, but we weren’t sure how to find what we needed. The crowd at Three Kegs didn’t seem to present any good candidates. Dyna suggested we head to Sorcerous Sundries and Elfsong, both are right next to each other and are known adventuring hang outs. I bit my tongue about Safana, I sure hope a better option presents itself.

Elfsong was very crowded. At least the ground floor was. I saw Safana to one side, but I also noticed among one group of refugees a woman wearing the symbol of Tymora. The Goddess of Good Fortune.

I offered to help get them funded for some help, but told her of our need for a cleric to head out against the Crusade. She eagerly volunteered that she was a Cleric of Tymora, and would love to join us. Terrific! Any chance she knew a trustworthy scout? Erato said she had done scouting for the guard back home. Perfect! We were set.

Erato was exhausted, and out of all resources and supplies. We got equipment for her at Sorcerous Sundries, then back to the Palace to get a good night’s sleep before we head out in the morning.

She also had a pleasent nature and was an eager helper. This could not have worked out better.
I stopped by Imoen’s room to see how she was doing.

I love my sister and I love her spirit. But I told her please no. I want her to study and learn from Liia. I want her to rejoin us as a mage.
Now I was a bit alarmed to find we were being spied on by a mage hiding back in the shadows. He came forward at this point, apparently just to say I was being watched. He gave me a profoundly unsettled feeling. He would be a feature of my nightmares in the weeks ahead.
Starting that evening. I dreamt the twisted old mage was trying to goad me into fighting my loved ones. He “showed me” that Amyntor was really a monster, like an avatar of murder. Creepy stuff.

We needed to end the Crusade. One way or another.
We set camp for the night at Coast Way Crossing. The obvious river crossing we’ll need to make on our way north. My team set out to reconnoiter the area before we called it a night.

Apparently she learned her lessons as a Flaming Fist! But the idea of a Duke’s daughter out here exploring for the fun of it made me very nervous. I suggested she head back to camp and report in. Did she roll her eyes at me? Am I sounding like mom? I think she’s older than me?

We had a few other little encounters with wildlife, and a poorly concieved attempt at pit fighting! The biggest thing would prove to be a small mineshaft opening.

We helped clear the area. They mentioned a member of their group had disappeared deeper in, but they were all banged up now. So we set off to find a wayward dwarf.

A dwarven lich? At least he was a rookie monster! I’m not sure we would have prevailed otherwise.

This was hard news for the other dwarves, they had all once been close. They agreed to join our march north, so we all returned to camp together.

In the morning, we led the way up to the bridge.

We were barely to our feet when the survivors attacked us. We battled, and had gained the upper hand, when a loud voice bellowed from across the river and demanded we stand down, to parley.

Apparently her “Crusade” goal is to storm the Abyss and return the fallen from two wars at Dragonspear Castle. And she insists we are not enemies, we should be on the same side.

I think her head needs a Heal spell worse than Minsc’s head. The woman is bonkers. How can so many people buy into such lunacy?

For now, we’re faced with a long detour. We can’t take an army this way. Its up to the huge Boarskyre Bridge. That has a very unfortunate association with my heritage.

*****

I am still having a lot of fun GPT Image 2.0!
One setting, lets you choose “how much” (how smart?) you want the AI to be. It gets expensive fast, and much slower at higher settings. So I mostly use the fastest/cheapest/stupidest setting. And mostly that works fine. Although I did turn it up to medium for three renders that were problematic on first swipe. The first was the army marching out. No doubt there was a lot going on there, and the written description was quite long. But the final result here was gorgeous. So okay, I’m sold on the smarter AI *when it’s needed.*
Next was the render with Minsc and Erato battling ghouls. That was moderately complex with a lot of parties involved, and it had a high failure rate presumably because it was a little graphic. And I did tweak the description too. I wanted to show Erato firing past Minsc into the ghouls. The smarter AI apparently settled by having her clearly fire away from Minsc. That was close enough!
The last was the meeting at the broken bridge. What a tough render! Every AI I’ve used struggles with understanding what a bridge is. And this did not want broken pieces to line up, or women on opposite sides, or anything looking like rubble and debris. I wound up layering it all together in five steps (?). One of those used the smarter AI. And when that last one finally came up I was ecstatic!

So now, this SoD run looks like it might be very detailed.