DavesGaming

No, you did not miss Update 20! Just the way I’ve been filing my renders, the introductory BG2 playthrough post is filed as “Update 20”.

On with the adventure!

*****

We would quickly learn this place is huge! Our captor, the hooded man from my nightmares, has a significant underground complex. As we exited the area of our cells, our cages, we saw signs of a recent fight. Several fallen men, looked to be thieves. We carefully walked down a short coridor to a small room. There was some sort of magical contraption in the middle of the room summoning mephits? Little imp-like elemental trouble makers. We killed one and shut down the machine. Right next door was a large cavern. A djinn seemed eager to speak to me.

He said my answer had consequences.

We dispatched the ogre and the djinn reappeared. He gave a friendly warning that our escape would soon be noticed. And that seemed to be it. He disappeared.

There were two corridors heading off in different directions, one just ended in a sealed door we couldn’t open. But both corridors resulted in skirmishes with goblins.

We found a large magical lab of some sort, full of various creature remains floating in glass tanks. It was all quite revolting. Then we came to another store room, larger than the one near our cells. A large golem stood in the room. He spoke, but only to say he awaited a command. We searched the room and the golem seemed uninterested, so he wasn’t security!

That was the first piece of *our* gear to turn up in this place. Even better for Amyntor, there was another fine, mildly magical long sword right next to it. So he was the first of us to re-equip with magic weapons.

Small wins, but we are growing more capable. A little.

We continued to face, and fight small groups of goblins. Usually less than a dozen. They were not a serious threat, but obviously if they escaped us we had officially been noticed! In another smaller store room we found a sort of magical command stone, Imoen thought it might go with the golem in the other room. When we handed it to him, he asked if we would like him to unlock the doors? Hah! Yeah that would be nice if we were going to escape this place!

While the golem ran off on his chore we resumed exploring. We cleared some goblins out of a library. Then we came to a large room, like a barracks and store room? It was the abode of several Duergar Dwarves. These guys could be a bit more dangerous than goblins!

No luck. I said I had no quarrel with them, but apparently they had one with me. So we fought. They had a spellcaster that Imoen went right to work on while the rest of us cleared out the warriors. It wasn’t a hard fight. In the end, we found they had a nice suit of Chain Mail Armor, “Mail of the Dead”! That was the armor Amyntor had worn for several weeks a while back. Funny, we could call that recovering more of our gear, but we hadn’t owned it for quite some time. Well, its back on Amyntor for now.

From here we soon found we’d reached a dead end. So we doubled back looking for doors the golem may have opened. That first corridor near the djinn’s cave now had an open door so we went through. A dirty storeroom. But another hallway led to a nice bed room. Searching here we found two magic helms that had been ours. One, the very nice Helm of Balduran I had worn for the last few weeks. So I reclaimed that. The other, known as “The Eyes of Truth” just helps with the wearer’s night vision. It had been in one of our packs but no one regularly wore it anymore. Now we would! We still had a shortage of helms, so we put it on Minsc.
Right through a large archway we saw what looked like a forest. It was!

They begged our help, they were prisoners. Concubines of Irenicus. Jaheira gasped. I know that name! He is a renowned powerful, and extremely evil mage. He is my hooded man! This huge complex seems fitting for such a meglomaniac. There is *no way* we are currently up to facing such a man. It added urgency to our need to *escape*. The dryads said Irenicus had their acorns somewhere and they could not leave here without them. Imoen produced a small bag of acorns we had found back with the Duergar. The dryads were very pleased, they asked we take them to their home grove and replant them. They gave us a place name I didn’t know, but we would find it when we were out of here.

Across the forest cavern we could see a smaller doorway. This led into another nice bedroom.

But it was a woman’s bed chamber. An elven woman. None of us knew what elf would be associated with Irenicus. And it was trapped? A bad memory maybe?

Among the items we had found was a magical keystone, that should open a particular magical locked door. We knew of one we’d previously passed and still wasn’t open. So we backtracked again. Opening this door was surprising. It seemed to lead to an alternate dimension of some sort, like a pocket plane of the elemental plane of air? There was a huge wooden walkway floating above a swirling dark void. We walked in a ways, and fought a few more mephits. Annoying things. A little way in we saw a platform. There was a table on the platform, with an oil lamp.

Another djinn. He seemed friendly, an offered that he had something of mine. Well, he sensed a connection to me anyway. But he really wanted out of here. If we could help him escape he would return it to me. He needed his own lamp, not the trapped one he’d been forced into by Irenicus (!). He didn’t know where it might be.
The dryads came to mind as the only ones who would actually talk to us, so we ran back to them. Indeed, they actually had the item. They happily gave it to us, and we returned it to the djinn.
He gave me a two-handed sword. Huh. We’d never owned it, but I recognized it. It was the sword used by Sarevok when we faced him. And gee, my buddy Minsc uses a great sword. So we now have another good magic weapon for the team.

We weren’t sure exactly were to go from here, but we had a few other magic items on us now than we did an hour ago. So we checked out some oddities. Like a transport portal in a storeroom, now seemed ready to respond… to something we were carrying. We stepped through, into another store room.

He was looking through crates. He reported, like us, he had been a captive until just recently. Now he wanted to escape Irenicus. But he was frustrated because the next room had several devices that kept summoning mephits. Good to know! There were apparently four of them. So we set three of us to battle mephits, while the other three would shut down or destroy the summoning devices.

That was an easy enough fight, but the room held a horror.

Our missing friend, and Jaheira’s husband, lay butchered on a large table. He was long dead. We had obviously been here many weeks. My friend Jaheira, she plays stoic. But I can see her trembling. I tried to offer support but she swatted me away. Very well, we will talk when she is ready.
We still had a ways to go, but things started to blur together. Another magic research room, this one seemed to be devoted to cloning a particular young elven woman. Was this related to the trapped bed room? It seems Irenicus has an obsession. We found a large trapped audience chamber of sorts. A foundry being worked by more duergar dwarves. A library holding a trapped doppleganger.

The thieves were dressed like the slain intruders we’d seen elsewhere in here. We helped take down the vampire. Thinking, hoping we could talk with the thieves. But no, as soon as Amyntor skewered the vampire the thieves turned on us.

But then we finally found a way out! A ramp leading up. We could see sunlight ahead, and hear some fighting.

Battling may be an exageration. He destroyed them. Imoen fired off a Magic Missile his way, but soon a group of mages teleported in. They boldly yelled Irenicus was under arrest! And Irenicus slew them all quite quickly. Another group teleported in. After killing a couple, Irenicus said he would only be arrested if they took Imoen too. She had also used magic!
What?! More mages were coming in. A couple grabbed at Irenicus and teleported away.

Obviously this is all my fault. I’m a horrible leader. None of these people should be here with me. How many more of them will die?
We don’t have time for self pity.

Jaheira said we were in Athkatla, the City of Coin. The capital of Amn. And a city where public magic use is illegal.
What have they done with Imoen?
Jaheira didn’t know, but she had friends here. People we could ask.
Casual conversation with some witnesses confirmed all of what Jaheira said. None of them knew where “magical deviants” were held.
First thing, we need some better gear. And probably some rest. Jaheira knew a shop nearby.

Oh really? I walked over to talk with this guard. He said something had gone horribly wrong inside, some dark magic. I told him we could take care of ourselves. Let us in, we’ll fix it.
Entering was like stepping into another world. It was huge! There was a bridge over to a palatial circus tent. A djinn stood guard with a riddle. It was a stupid math story, Imoen could have answered it in her sleep. So I did instead, with a little more thinking than Imoen would have needed.

We entered the inner tent.

Wait, no. I’m not afraid of illusions. She (?) said she was chained and needed to be free. I didn’t see any chains. Illusions. We looked around a little.

Indeed! They were armed orcs! They seemed to disolve when slain. Except for a magic sword left behind. We walked back towards the ogre, who excitedly said “that’s the key! give it to me!” I had detected no evil on her so I did.

We all advanced up a grand staircase into a plush sort of classical temple. And we were attacked by shadows and werewolves. This should have been an easy fight, if we were properly equiped. But only Amyntor and Minsc have magic weapons. We found Jaheira and I could dispatch illusionary monsters, but there were some real ones too. They needed magic. So the fight was harder than it should have been. But we prevailed.

The djinn from the bridge stood at the next staircase, and warned us we were entering the domain of Kalah, master illusionist. I guess that’s what we’re looking for!

Aerie muttered “the gnome”. There were more werewolves and shadows, but we focused in on the ogre. He fell with a shriek, and the whole illusion quickly disolved. A gnome lay dying in the dirt of a small circus tent.

Aerie saw a puddle of slime in one corner had turned back into her uncle… an older gnome? We would learn Aerie had spent many years as a slave in this circus, and had been mostly raised by the overseer. The kindly gnome. We also found the woman who was seperated from her son and sent her back outside.
It started with that I think. I’m feeling much steadier now. I’m ready to face some things.

Aerie wanted to see the world, and eagerly asked if she could accompany us. Careful what you ask for girl…
Aerie is a cleric of a gnomish deity (!) and a mage. Well we can use both of those! “Okay. Just know Aerie you catch us at a low ebb. We’ve lost several dear friends, and most of our gear. If you join with us I will fight for and protect you as best I can. But we live a dangerous life and there are no gauruntees. And we may be at odds with the Athkatla authorities. At least to say, my first priority is releasing my sister from their custody.”
“You fought to save me, my Uncle, and reunite that woman with her son.”
“We fight to make things right. Its not always easy, or even clear. But we do our best.”

Aerie was one of us now. She has led an oddly sheltered sort of life so far. So she is not very different from myself.
From here, we could see the outfitter Jaheira had mentioned.

Hah! If they serve adventurers they do! And they did.
We have amassed some coin, and a small pile of valuables in the last couple hours. So we went inside to see what all we could sell and what we could buy.
We did alright. For now, we will leave Amyntor in his magic chain mail. Minsc, Jaheira and myself all got non-magical plate armor. We bought a mildly magical short sword for me, and a newer shield. Aerie had never traveled, so we needed to get her a traveling spell book. Obviously that meant she had NO spells for it. We spent as much as we could on spells for her new book. A handful of 1st – 3rd level spells. She can cast 4th level too, but we couldn’t afford anymore for now.
I also asked about the damaged Soul Taker Dagger we had, if the proprietor had any idea who could help us get someone out of it! He looked amazed, that is not an easy artifact to damage! No, he decided. He knew no one who could help.

As we left the shop, the dwarf out front said he had over heard some of our converstaion. And he suggested a mage and sage named Nem, who worked around the Slums District, might be able to help. I felt very pleased to hear that, an actual lead on this thing.

We checked into an inn to get some sleep, before some of us started falling over.

I will continue to keep an eye on Jaheira. I wish she could share her grief better. But at least she is still with us. Aerie is full of questions. I answer all as best I can. I think she will be a good addition to the team. Yoshimo is quiet, watching closely. I’m less sure about him fitting in.

*****

A few notes, things about my own head canon on things.
“Traveling Spell Books” were a thing in Unearthed Acana originally, I think. For 2E maybe in the Mage’s Supplement/Handbook? But the IE games don’t really mention them, except for the use of a “spellbook” tab to access an arcane caster’s spells. Since SCS wipes out any spellbook on a new spellcaster, it fits nicely into the idea of a physical notebook that an arcane caster carries. Both Imoen and Aerie start here with no actual book, so they build from scratch. It makes perfect sense. Less sense for when I recruit Nalia next, but that’s fine. Its a little tight for now while we are broke (!). But this situation will improve quickly.

I had hoped you would see Brad’s distinctive yellow shield in that last render. But I got a render I Ioved, with no real place to put the shield! I’ve mentioned before my thought on such devices. I think Cantrip Magic makes it pretty easy for any mage to alter the look of adventuring gear. I can easily imagine adventurers adopting their own symbols for family, homeland, faith, or just things they think are cool! So yeah, Brad will carry her traditional shield, at least until she switches over to dual wielding later in the game.