Next morning, Shart lets me know she's mad at Shar, and Minty hits on me. Aagh! I didn't want Minty to like me that much! But she accepts her status as ally and nothing more. Instead of them, I recruit the two druids, Jaheira and Halsin, for the next leg of the journey. The druids need to level up. Jaheira needs to level up from scratch. And now we can't leave because Halsin won't fast-travel from the camp. I can't ditch him via dialogue. Arrgh! Reload from save! Wyll can come instead. And Jaheira will be a musically gifted spore druid.
Off we go again. Through the looking glass, three cutscenes: Reithwin reblossoming (will this let Halsin leave camp?), Orin threatening Gortash, and the party arriving in Wyrms Lookout in the evening, settling in the campsite. Where we will spend only one (1) night, so imma loot it like there's no tomorrow. Gimme all yer cups 'n plates 'n vittles! The incense and the mugwort and lookie here, this chest contains some dye! Perfect for the old clothes always lying around. On a little path to the north, the background music changes to Asty's song. Gale wants to talk, so I do the social rounds and hear that Minthara despises the Harpers. Not liking you right now, Minty.
Long rest, githyanki ambush: I already know I should jump straight into the portal, where Jaheira, in owlbear form no less, gets her ass kicked by two monks who already destroyed all the intellect devourers. Karlach jumps towards the urgent voice telling them to come to the skull, and dies. Oh, that does it. Reload save.
Before doing that long rest again, I will properly kit out Jaheira, who was still wearing her old togs. +1 scimitar in offhand? No, Justiciar's scimitar. Light leather armour? No, Barkskin Armour to make her AC jump from 11 to 16. She gets Lae's Ichorous Gloves, Fleshmelter Cloak and Caustic Band, so Lae can use the psychic damage gear we found in and before the mind flayer colony. She also gets the Harper's Amulet, Flawed Helldusk helmet for saves against spells, and choice of Varsh Ko'kuu's boots and the Springstep Boots. As a caster of healing spells, she borrows Shart's Ring of Whispering Promise. No bow or arrows, as she surprisingly has no proficiency with ranged weapons; plenty of throwables to make up for it. And Wyll is replaced by Lae.
Karlach jumps and runs towards the portal, diving in before the githyanki can touch us. Cutscene. I already hate the idea of killing these people, who are only protecting their prince. Jaheira conjures up a dryad near the two fighters closest to us. They roflstomp the dryad to a small smear of green vines, then one jumps to us. Lae beats her up, Karlach throws her on top of the other one and tosses a smokepowder bomb on both. Ironically the green smear was just viney enough to entangle the survivor; everyone jumps past her while she struggles, and Karlach, to add injury to insult, finishes her off with a thrown explosive.
A Reddit post tells me I can send summons ahead to soften up the four gith near Orpheus, who will ignore them and only beat on the intellect devourers without doing any damage. In Patch 7, at least, this is no longer the case. I send ice mephits ahead, and they trigger the cutscene where the Emperor, still breathless from a punch in the ribs, begs our help. So now we're in combat, but we're a long distance from the fight. Seven, happy to arrive last, uses his action to twincast Haste on the two bruisers. Lae reaches the Emperor first and throws up a Globe of Invulnerability over them both, then heads out to bash the nearest enemy before running back inside. The mephits dive under the globe. Karlach, with her SuperJumps (fuelled by an Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength) is second, and uses Phalar Aluve's Shriek to Reverberate her opponents. (This sword is amazing with the Gloves of Belligerent Skies, Ring of Spiteful Thunder and Thunderskin Cloak. Make it shriek, enemies are now Reverbed, next turn they're Dazed, if they manage to hit you, they fall down Dazed.) The gith all deflect missiles, so rather than throwing her pike, Karlach throws them into each other. Mephits claw, Lae pummels, Karlach Dazes and Reverberates, and the score is 1 dead, 3 knocked out when the fight is over and question time begins. I'm glad Lae came along, so she can grit her teeth and protest while the Emperor sets her straight re: Orpheus. Emps gives Seven the astral tadpole, and yet another dialogue option I never want to have to use for any party member.
Before jumping in the portal back to camp, I let the party, especially Lae and Karlach who are still Hasted, run, jump and fly across all accessible parts of the dead god skeleton to harvest alchemical ingredients, githyanki slates, arms and armour, and to take in the scenery. In the distance is a tiny islet with a bare tree on it, water cascading down the side. Sadly, the knocked-out githyanki can't be picked up (because not dead) and brought to our camp for their safety. Lae finds a gilded chest in a remote corner at the bottom of the ribcage. Karlach manages to jump on a rock with some broken latticework, perched on the shoulder of the arm with the slowly revolving bracelet, and finds another gilded chest. A rich haul.
Back through the portal, Lae with an exclamation mark over her head, putting everyone near their own tent. For the moment, the only available names to send things to are the four party members plus the camp chest, so all booty including ingredients goes to the camp chest. Hey, the portal is still there, and the three githyanki that Karlach jumped past, and that no one laid a finger on, lie dead in a pool of blood. We take their bodies into the prism through the portal. Lae's exclamation mark is gone, but when addressed she will still tell the story of Orpheus. The Emperor is gliding to and fro in a dignified manner. Karlach won't talk, she says it's not safe here. Seven asks Jaheira about illithids, she says she was part of their hivemind once, Seven jokes that it's his parasite speaking to her, she calls him "saer parasite" and approves. We leave, the prism jumps into Karlach's inventory and sticks there; it is now bound to her instead of Seven. Lae has her exclamation mark back, and rehashes the talk we had inside the astral prism. The camp is empty except for us four. Back to sleep! Tomorrow the camp should be normal again.
Next morning, everyone is talking about Shart's new hair, except Shart, who worries about the mind flayer in the astral prism. When addressed a second time, she admits to changing her hair. Lae and Minty noticed that something is off about Shart, but can't put their finger on it. In the light of day, I loot the parts of camp that I overlooked in the dark. When the party arrived and looked at Baldur's Gate from the top of Wyrm's Lookout, I noticed a horizontal "barricade" of planks. This can be broken to reveal a chest on a platform underneath. Reddit tells me I have to jump down to the platform to reach the chest, then out through the window onto a roof. I let Karlach do this, and run around on the connected roofs.
From Wyrm's Lookout, there is only one option: Leave camp. We'll explore Rivington fully later, first I want to get the coronation out of the way. I take the companions most likely to snark at Gortash: Karlach (of course), Minthara and Jaheira. Checking for herbs on the path down (and loot in the deserted tent - a buried chest is behind it) I meet Yenna (who I notice for the first time has a blue and a green eye) and give her some food. Minthara approves, but then ruins it by saying the city should make use of the refugees, and snapping at Seven no matter what he answers.
Small sidetrack: Arfur's mansion. Clearly I picked the wrong dialogue option for a peaceful resolution. We fought and killed the Guild thugs, then talked to Arfur and the refugees (who used to be tieflings, but are now ordinary humans), and short-rested; the basement will be checked later. We're startled by an earthquake. I'm skipping the Post Office, which would give us a document to get through the checkpoint. At the gate, Seven says they are not refugees and gets scammed out of 200 gold, then Jaheira steps up and pretends she is a herbalist who was out gathering ingredients with her assistants. The Steel Watcher scans us. I thought I'd discretely offed all the Scrying Eyes, but again am accused of slaughtering the goblins, which I deliberately did not do, and agree to be arrested so I can free Florrick (Minthara disapproves). But an Ironhand gnome lobs a flashblinder and we just run past up to the bridge's checkpoint. To Danthelon's Dancing Axe!
Jaheira speaks up when we get there. Danthelon loves me because I actually buy something at his shop. He's less pleased to see Jaheira. In the basement, again the strategy of sending someone ahead and sneaking invisibly in the rear does not pay off: after the cutscene we're all visible and mostly too far from the fight. Due to respective distances, Karlach, not Seven, answers to Jaheira about the doppelgangers, successfully reads Geraldus' mind, and strikes while Jaheira has the enemy distracted. Therefore, they are Surprised and don't get a single turn before we kill them. Jaheira spills the beans about Minsc (cue gasp from Karlach), Minthara sneers at the Harpers. Minty, you are on thin ice. We loot the basement. There is a cage that Geraldus may have been locked up in until Jaheira visited. We report to Danthelon, who sounds quite concerned about Geraldus.
Outside, another earthquake; Emps says something's happening to the brain. Ohshit, another obstacle for which I should have had a document: the drawbridge. I waste three inspos and a scroll of Charm Person (which almost gets me in trouble) failing to convince Blaze Elin to let me pass. We'll have to jump across. Feather Fall, a dizzying jump to the grassy rock under the other side of the drawbridge, then going round the left - picking all the Dragon Egg mushrooms fittingly growing over the Wyrm's lair - and up a ladder and long hanging vines to a Wyrm's Rock Fortress side door, nets us two inspos for the Noble background: Procedures Be Damned.
The side door is locked, and we can't jump from the left battlements of the fort onto the bridge on the other side. The Gloves of Dexterity, and Guidance from Jaheira, let Seven unlock the door in one try. Next, in turn-based, we sneak around the sight cone of the oblivious patrolling guard and open the unlocked, but still red-outlined door into the throne room. As Karlach walks the fastest, she not only triggers the cutscene, but ends up the one speaking to Gortash, so she can't murderously interject in the conversation, but can read him for filth. Jaheira stays silent, but Minty pipes up that she likes an alliance which lets us kill Orin and subjugate the netherbrain. Karlach tells Gortash she would rather juice her eyes than watch his ceremony, and he dismissively goes "Yes, yes..." Afterwards, when Seven addresses Gortash, it is again Karlach who does the dialogue; Gortash brushes her off again, telling her to find Orin in our camp, which, in Rivington, is a farmyard and crushed farmhouse whose contents are tantalizingly out of reach.
We pop back to camp to tell Wyll the bad news about his father. Minty admires Gortash and thinks he would make a good leader if he didn't have such rotten allies. Thing is, he might make a good administrator if he didn't serve such a rotten god. Mint would love us to succeed him, should he fail. (Not happening, Minty.) Jaheira, having more life experience, knows that Gortash is a show-off and says he wants to rule jointly so he'll have company to admire him. Neither seem to realize that Gortash is desperate for a meat shield. Yenna has turned up with her cat Grub, who thinks that Yenna's mother may have gone to live her (whispers) "last life". When Yenna asks to stay, Jaheira cuts in to say of course she can, although the final choice is Seven's. Lae has new Mommy Lae'Zel dialogue, though she threatens to spit and roast Seven if he calls her that. No one at camp acts like an impostor yet.
We leave camp to search for the fort's exit towards the Lower City, talking/listening to all named patriars, who will be dead next time we visit - Madeline Whitburn is an absolute twat, her passing won't be mourned - and watching Gortash alternately mouth and gesture soundlessly to no one, and cross his arms. Mizora no longer waits on the bridge, but ambushes us as soon as we leave the throne room through the downward passage. She has a proposal. We locate Dammon, then pop back to camp - the city camp this time - to tell Wyll more bad news. I'd planned to find Jaheira's house, but first want to influence which Rivington NPCs Orin kills by visiting the two I don't mind dying. Minty, who clearly has a ladyboner for Gortash, has now been nasty to both Karlach and Wyll; I'm tempted to kick her out of the party so Orin will abduct her.
Back to Rivington. Let's swap Mint for Ast and investigate Arfur's basement. Plenty of Perception fails. We need to see those traps; who has high Perception? Halsin, funnily enough. He'll trade places with Jaheira. But he STILL can't leave camp or be dismissed through dialogue. This is a real and serious bug; is it because Halsin and Minthara coexist in camp? Reload save.
Three Reddit posts mention companions not being able to fast-travel:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/1d0caj0/companion_cant_travel_from_camp/
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/1if8yok/companion_stuck_in_camp_cant_leave_cant_remove/
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/174soe4/companion_cant_fast_travel/
In all three cases, it has to do with having been jailed. These "stuck"
companions can be transported only by killing them, picking up their corpses,
going where you want them to be, then resurrecting them; but killing them can
reset their approval to its initial value. The only way to unstick them is to
have them be put back in a jail cell, and escape from it.
Apparently, the game thinks Halsin is not in camp. It may have to do with dismissing Halsin to camp while he was in a Moonrise Towers jail cell. So I should kill him (which would decrease his approval score), pick him up to fast-travel out of camp, revive him, take all his items (so they don't go into the Equipment chest), get him arrested, and break him out of jail; or make him join my party, have Karlach improvisedweapon him to a waypoint, take his items, get him arrested and have him escape jail, all to unset a possible "in jail" flag. Hopefully, it doesn't need to be the same jail, as I can't return to Act II.
Asked Halsin to take Minthara's place. Karlach improvisedweapons him to Rivington, where the party appears at the waypoint - minus Halsin. Ungrouped Karlach and tried again: nope. Made Halsin kill himself: conjured Flame Sphere, he can't hit it and it refuses to hit him. Alchemist Fire on self; mostly saves. Smokepowder bombs on self, mostly saves, but it gets him below 0 HP; he succeeds all three death save throws and is now Downed. Someone casts a small heal on him, enough to make him throw another bomb on himself; this time he fails all three throws and dies. Karlach can throw him but doesn't have the strength to pick him up, so Jaheira takes an Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength to do the honours, drops him in Rivington and takes his whole inventory. Halsin-in-underwear gets heals until he stops saying that he's at his limit, and is ungrouped. His "back to camp" icon is greyed out. He touches red-outlined things near the donation barn, but it only garners disapproval from the Fists. So he outright picks up a not-for-stealing Letter of complaint (from that bigot Grotpoll). "You've been seen stealing from your cell," the narrator begins. Yes, Halsin does have an in-jail flag set. He is transported to Wyrm's Rock Prison, a red area, same cell as the Unusual Skull who helps inmates escape, and the skeleton of the biographer who wrote a true account of Gortash's rise to power. The party must trigger the quest to save Florrick, so they can spring Halsin too. But first, Halsin wildshapes to badger, burrows out of his cell - he gets temporary Fugitive status, but no guard comes dashing at him - and burrows into Florrick's cell. He can't unwildshape and talk to her, so he just takes a nap on her bed.
To properly save Florrick, Wyll joins, replacing Jaheira. In order to read the poster that triggers Florrick's quest, we run across the now lowered drawbridges of Wyrm's Fortress into the Lower City, but can't enter. "A member of your party is not ready to proceed." Sigh. Back to the fortress. In the throne room, the patriars and their servants lie murdered, and Banites abound, yet the "Karlach confronts Gortash" quest is unfinished, probably for lack of aforementioned murderous interjections. There are no execution notices among the "Wanted" posters on the ground floor (including one for the "Stone Man" who "travels with a mouse"), but the Prison Log near the sleeping guard at the prison entry mentions Florrick, which starts the quest. I know there's a way to enter the prison from the outside. We jump off the drawbridge again. Wyll reminisces about his old fishing spot, to which Gale normally asks what he caught, but Gale isn't there, so Wyll answers to no one in particular. This time we're going around the fort's right side, past the defenestrated corpse of a patriar.
A crack in the outer wall leads to a pantry, storing mostly rotten produce, with a locked door to the prison that Seven unlocks using bardlock Wyll's bardic inspiration. The three use potions of invisibility to sneak past the guards' break room. I suddenly discover Halsin's "Dismiss Wild Shape" icon on the far right of the bar, and turn him back into an underdressed druid to reassure Florrick. This ends turn-based, and once their chat is done, no one is invisible. Seven forgets to crouch when unlocking Florrick's door: here come the guards. Halsin wildshapes to his bear form, and is now called "Cave Bear" in all menus. To our credit, we knock all guards out, no lives taken, although I do of course rob them blind. Three are chaff, one casts a Command:Grovel too powerful for Wyll and Seven to counterspell. In the end, Florrick aids Wyll who aids Seven who aids Karlach who slams the last guard on the ground repeatedly. We exit through the crack. Halsin can fast-travel again! Without having lost any approval. At camp, Seven tosses water on Halsin's bloodstain to remove it; Karlach cleanly eliminates the puddle with a flaming arrow.
Intermezzo: colouring Road-Dust Grey Clothes in all dyes we've bought so far, and letting Wyll show them off. Sadly the clothing's icons don't indicate what dyes were applied, so at the bottom of the camp chest inventory grid I put rows of dye bottles and the uniformly grey icons of dyed clothes under them. There's no point in dyeing shoes, as they are obscured by the Longstrider aura.
From the cracked fortress wall, we have the option to descend two rope ladders to a beach where a trapped chest sits. There may be a fight nearby, so topical Wyll and ultra-perceptive Halsin are exchanged for trapmeister Ast and Jaheira who is still buffed up by that strength elixir. Turns out the tiny slivers of beach around the fortress offer only loot and yet another way (a drainpipe) into its prison; Rivington-side beach is where it happens. So we cross the bridge back and talk to Lens the journalist, arrggh, have we condemned her to death by talking to a disguised Orin? On examination, she's just a level 1 Tiefling, phew. The wiki says that Orin won't impersonate NPCs once Gortash has warned that the party's camp is compromised, and won't supplant a member until one long rest after reaching the Lower City. Found Ironhand cave, accepted runepowder bomb, which Jaheira approved and Karlach didn't. Questioned the refugee who was murdered for the gem in his brother's ring. Further on is a cave blocked by boulders, which Jaheira casually tosses aside; bloody footprints lead into it. Further still are landmines leading to the fight between the Zhents and the Guild. I'll leave those for now, because if Zethino is safe, then we can grab some meat for the dinosaur, and visit the circus. Ast hates clowns, Wyll loves them, so they switch.
Circus: get in for free using archfey patron's threat. Buy and apply clown face paint. Feed the dino, secure the displacer beast. Talk to Lucretious, buy from Popper. Order statue. Spin wheel several times by different party members (none seem happy about interacting with Akabi, Wyll looks positively disgusted) to get Reverse Rain Cloak and Boots of Very Fast Blinking. Have a session with Zethino (quicksave before answering); the facepaint seems gone. Immediately after: the facepaint IS gone. Damn. Let's wrap this up for today: unmask Dribbles, visit Raphael. We'll win the jackpot tomorrow.
Clown battle: Seven goes up on stage, first Hastes himself, then casts Telekinesis; not only does Telekinesis have only half a chance of tossing "Dribbles", but Seven becomes lethargic due to ending Haste, and achieves nothing. Reload. The second time, Seven spots the ambush, and Bitey Buddy doesn't get the first bite in. No facepaint means no protection from the clown hammer, so Seven blasts both clown and dog with a Chain Lightning scroll, then mistysteps away to Jaheira and Wyll, so the latter can splash a speed potion - the most reliable source of Haste - on all three. The two warlocks eldritch-blast. Karlach throws the two beast handlers at each other. Jaheira is strong enough to do the same with the clown and the shadow mastiff. Only one civilian is attacked, and survives; Wyll heals him. Fyodor arrives too late to participate. Jaheira cleans up the scene by picking up the three doppelganger corpses, but can't directly send them to camp; she deposits them in the camp chest manually, then puts in, and transfers them to, a Painted Chest, which displays a content of "7" despite there being three items in it. (Later, we add a rat corpse, and now there are two doppelganger corpses, content still "7".) We check the stage; backstage there is a rusty handaxe, no doubt used to chop up the real Dribbles. We buy something from Boney to cheer his wife up; I didn't know he had anything for sale. After Talli, he's the second vendor to sell basilisk oil. What does Klaus, who didn't want to let us into the circus, think of us now? He thanks us for making sure no one got hurt. His sniffer: "Blood, in the circus? Without Benji? Aw."
The party climbs the watchtower ladder to look down on Rivington's roofs, dotted with splotches of blood and (pigeon) feathers. After we've nipped to Carm's Garms to browse dyes (she doesn't stock the rarest ones) and hear out Naaber (maybe his reward, the Absolute Confidence Amulet, will let Seven succeed the busking Performance check as easily as Wyll), Lae'Zel takes Wyll's place to meet both Voss and Raphael in the brothel. I've decided Seven will dress the part; the Anarchic Blue and other backless outfits look delightfully silly on dumpy little halfling men. And I've just found out that clothes can be dyed while worn (although their icons won't change). Most dyes make Seven's sexy new shirt too garish, but Black and Jade Green, Harlequin Black and White (comes out silvery), Light Blue, and Pink and Leaf Green bring out its details while preserving a certain gravitas. Sage Green and Swamp Green are two nice green/brown combinations. Yellow decks Seven out in green and gold. For pastel shades, there's Light Pink, or Peach and Apricot which unites blue, pink and golden hues, or you can't really go wrong with my favourite: Lime, Lemon & Lichen. I choose Light Blue, to go with his hair, scales and draconic bloodline. Karlach's torn and mended clothes also look fetching, if slightly grotty, in Light Blue or milky Swamp Green, but the dye best suited to them is Muddy Red. Before reloading a save and applying the chosen dyes, I test the Boots of Very Fast Blinking; Seven loses all armour except his boots, and camp clothing except his shoes and underwear, but retains jewellery, weapons, torch and musical instrument. Then, toggle to display camp clothing on my power couple, and off to meet the devil.
In the Devil's Den, Jaheira stays silent; all the sass comes from Karlach. I wanted to take Raphael's deal, to get that extra bit of dialogue with Haarlep, but all my companions are glad I refused, as is Empy; and now I can go and annoy Korrilla, who Karlach dislikes. All four party members talk to Korrilla to try out different dialogue trees. Lae gets to say that maybe she turned Raphael down too hastily, to which Karlach comments: "You really didn't."
Gale and Minty both want the crown for themselves. (Not happening, both of you!) When we speak to Voss afterwards, Empy's listening in again; even though Voss says Orpheus hates the brain more than ghaik, and will help us, squidward berates me and tells me to focus on the brain. Lae should be kidnapped by Orin tonight, if I reshuffle the team to Gale, Halsin and Minthara. Because Lae will be a good fifth member on the team in the Bhaal temple fight, and I'm not going to let Orin kill Grub. (Accidentally fast-travelled to Sharess' Caress with new team, and Gale repeats we must go to Sorcerous Sundries, then impresses on Seven that they must claim the crown.)
Busy night: first Mizora (pact is broken), then Yurgir. Everyone is heartbroken for Wyll except Minthara ("Patricide is often the first step to greatness"), Astarion who sees it as a chance to grab power, and Karlach who - bug - thinks Wyll signed the new forever pact. Yurgir, my dude, tells us how to find Raphael's house. Finally, after eating and falling asleep: the scene where Empy is sitting, lost in thought, on a bench, beside a bottle rack, looking at Orpheus while mourning Stelmane. In the morning, Lae is still unabducted.
Ast and Karlach take Mint's and Gale's place, to untrap and search Arfur's basement. We detect almost all the traps, and collect 20 Wogglims and a few boxes of firework. The corpses of the Guild thugs outside the mansion have disappeared. In the Requisitioned Barn (where we DO NOT STEAL, because refugees), Ast discovers and disarms the explosive teddy bears. We greet the surviving tiefling refugees, call Biscotti a good boy, and make fun of Grotpoll (Halsin gives his two cents) and his cronies (Seven wastes a bardic inspiration on pretending to be a cultist to scare them). Had the ideal party for the Gur camp: Ast hears them out and promises revenge on Cazador, Halsin and Karlach both score an inspo. Out of respect, left the Gur's belongings alone, even the stuff that's safe to take.
Ignored Manip Falcao who called to us for help in killing the Ironhand gnomes. Found a Baldur's Gate Gazette showing Gortash with raised fist, but once in inventory, the pictures and stories have changed completely. (Any old newspaper, when picked up, changes to today's issue.) Horus Crysst has a different face now, but Raphael's face turns up again as Spargo Ovilliers; hard to miss that nose scrunch and those cavernous eye sockets. Killed the mind flayer in the windmill as it would attack civilians otherwise, but didn't eat its brain like Empy suggested, ew. Reward: a useful ring. Found the Sword Coast Couriers key. Talked to Angleiron and was nice to Exxvikyap; some of the dialogue choices towards her are pretty nasty. Entered Sword Coast Couriers, saw that Gazette again: it's issue 83, which changes to issue 87 when picked up. Had fun talking to Commander Lightfeather and whoa, another inspiration for both Karlach and Halsin. Didn't tell Angry Mar'hyah about Scratch yet. Snuck into circus at the spot where the two children are arguing, thereby finding chest containing dead rat and note from Popper, letting me persuade Popper to give hand for free. Hand is hella heavy. Now, who to send into Chult, Karlach or Seven or maybe Halsin?
Seven fails miserably, so reload, and it's up to Karlach, two ice mephits to successively lure more alioramuses into combat and prone them with ice, and Phalar Aluve, the shrieking sword. The last alioramus, found asleep in the nest, is knocked out so Karlach can safely follow the giant spine of a fossil's carcass to the high outcrop where she finds a backpack full of goodies, and two written warnings about messing with djinnies. The smashed body on the rock by the portal back to the circus indicates that this jump requires a means of Feather Fall. Karlach can't lockpick the painted chest found here, so she picks it up, enters the portal and, as a final f-you, is teleported to the outhouses. Nyrulna, meant for Karlach, goes to Seven as it gives him extra movement speed, making it easier to keep up with the party. He'll send it to Karlach if she needs it in a fight, since he's not proficient with tridents, and can't throw it without unequipping Spellsparkler.
Ast has done his job pickpocketing Akabi's ring (inspiration!), and will get a second chance at that scammer's money, but may now retire so that Gale can meet the "shitey little elephant" (inspiration!) and reconnect with his tressym (inspiration!) at the Open Hand Temple. Halsin is communicative, alerting Gale to Tara's presence on the roof. I save, open the bundle and read the letters to see if they include the one to Roah - they do - then reload, because I want Danzo to take all the letters, not just Roah's. It's already annoying that I can't hand in the letters I found on Gomwick. People are waiting for these letters, Danzo! Do your job!
What else needs to be done in Rivington, before entering the Lower City? Look up Arfur in Sharess' Caress for the blackmail letter, and investigate the kitchen basement. Find out what happened to Ffion. Explore the cave where Brilgor was murdered. Maybe hand over, then re-liberate Scratch. Most importantly, sell bags to main sellers to accumulate their most valuable wares.
List of Act III vendors:
Rivington:
Mol and Dondo sell at very competitive prices (they're fences). Halsin may refuse to trade with Mol if a certain thing happened in the Grove. Of all sellers, only Boney reacts with disappointment if you don't actually buy something. In addition, there are newspaper sellers (my favourite: Silfy, at Heapside Strand) and a scammer who sells "enchanted" jewellery.
Karlach usually comes along, so the question is, who best to bring on each little quest. Confronting Arfur in front of the stage in Sharess's Caress: Halsin, to hear more of his ruminations on city life, Jaheira to rebuke Arfur and, after that, Astarion to help us sneak into the kitchen basement. Halsin keeps repeating the banter to Karlach about love being the best healer, and Jaheira doesn't say a damn thing, but Arfur gives me a pass to the archducal coronation. Arghh! I could have used that earlier. After Arfur's departure, we busk along with the violinist by the stage for a bit, unintentionally luring Hoots and the Orlith twins, the latter remaining there to chat. The blacksmith who paid Sorn to use the clamping device: given his letter from a dating agency, could it have been a very lonely and frustrated Angleiron? The kitchen basement is behind a locked door, and has scant supplies which we nick anyway, the highlight being apples from the Basket of Tomatoes. Apart from belatedly encouraging us to plunder the larder, the rat in the basement has nothing much to say.
Discovering Ffion in Fraygo's Flophouse: Jaheira, Minthara, Astarion for when we meet other vampire spawn. When I investigate the blood that leads me to Ffion's corpse, Ast, for some reason, approves (he likes people who sniff blood?). Ast's siblings tell him all about the Rite of Ascension. The unnamed locked chests, I assume, contain their stuff: a fancy outfit and alcohol. Afterwards, only Jaheira has anything to say about Cazador's plans. Valeria (to whom I was far too nice) gives us a pass to the Lower City, again argh. But first, two matters to attend to in the Open Hand temple: telling the Sentient Amulet no, and questioning Brilgor's corpse. For this, Karlach gets Ast's place because she wears the amulet. As the zombie corpses that rose from their graves can't be moved, or thrown back into their tombs, Karlach just throws each one next to their plaque after the fight, leaving it to the temple personnel to clean up. The zombies drop loot, but the amulet is now useless. Reload, agree to shoulder the madness; a happier ending, but the amulet is again useless. Reload again; the amulet will remain possessed until the end of the game.
Clearing out the cave system where Bhaalists have killed tiefling refugees: a girls' night out with Karlach, Minthara and stand-in healer Jaheira, wearing Shart's healing trinkets. And since the cave entrance is on the beach, follow the beach to mop up the Zhentarim fighting the Thieves Guild. We're too late to talk, they've just started the fight, but the Guild assumes we're siding with them; is it because Jaheira is with us? Nice. Zhent Cairos looks unsettlingly like Dammon. His maul Corpsegrinder will be added to Karlach's collection of thunder damage weapons.
Last team switch for today: for a trick I saw on Youtube to add NPCs as companions, I need Gale and Halsin. Gale will polymorph a NPC, Halsin will cast Dominate Beast on it, we'll fast-travel to camp, Halsin will be dismissed from the party, and after the dominating spell runs out, we should have a new member. Test subject will be that slimy Sharran bastard Ferg Drogher. On popping up at the Rivington waypoint, Karlach is almost overcome with horrible happiness from the Sentient Amulet, but succeeds the saving throw. Passing through the circus, Karlach plays The Power along with the sad entertainer. Gale breaks out his violin, but oops, I forgot he can't play instruments yet, so he makes an awful noise. Also nipped into the Open Hand Temple, to get confirmation that Brilgor's name is cleared (but his gravestone still has the accusing text) and rob the bookcases, which contain the odd Sunbeam scroll. But where the heck is Ferg? It was hard finding him the first time, and now he seems to have disappeared. Looked it up on the wiki: he's between Arfur's mansion and the Requisitioned Barn, next to a well. The wiki says that if stolen from, he will run off; evidently the same applies if he's polymorphed, dominated and abducted. Reload save. Maybe Manip Falcao, the one who keeps asking us to off the Ironhands? Nope, once unpolymorphed he disappears from camp and doesn't show up at his old spot. This exploit must have been patched out. (Nope, see further down: it works on Mizora. Halsin should have been dismissed before returning to camp.)
It's not right to end the day without a(nother) fight, and we haven't been down the well yet. Not the one next to Ferg Drogher, but the well near Open Hand Temple, where two women are discussing an escape into the wilderness. Nothing to fight down there, only murdered refugees. Judging from the note on one of the bodies, this was the work of the thugs - two adults, one child - near the Rivington General who are talking about plans to rough up refugees, not the Bhaalists. I've been itching to murder those assholes, and now I know how to make them disappear. Whoops again, these NPCs can be sheepified and dominated, but won't travel back to camp with us. OK, skip last step and lure them into Angleiron's living room for unnoticed dispatching. Grr, they just pop back to their spot to resume yapping. Attack them in broad daylight? Klaus and Benji enter combat. So I improvisedweapon the shitty little brat to the Rivington waypoint, and slam him down to knock him out (children can't be killed), then go back to do the same for one of the adults, except slamming him down kills him. I return, the other adult is nowhere to be seen. Whatevs, they're not stinking up the street anymore. Feels GOOD. A fitting ending to the day.
My cup runneth over: an even better end of the day! At long rest, Vlaakith manifests, and Lae tells her to eff off. Everyone in camp supports Lae'Zel, except Minthara. Next run, I'm killing you again, Minty. Your only use to me is being half-way between Karlach and Shart in abilities; Patch 8 even adds a paladin subclass that can cast Spirit Guardians, making Shart superfluous.
Before dismissing Fuzzy Lumps after his morning camp casting routine, I had him transform into a blue jay so he could fly into the dilapidated Rivington camp farmhouse. No such luck, "not enough space" and "invalid target". That house will remain frustratingly unscavenged.
Hoping to make the morning rounds of all shopkeepers in the Lower City, then do the broadsheet quest to get in their good books, instead I found myself having to save Cora Highberry so I could pillage her wines. We huddled under a Globe of Invulnerability while Us bravely tanked. Halsin managed to spring a lucky entangle on "Master Meztli", whose Dimension Door Gale counterspelled, but Dolor's second cast let the killer escape with nary a scratch on him. At least, one of Dolor's doppelgangers was knocked out rather than dead, allowing Minthara to recover a spell slot using Spellthief. Speaking of spell slots, previously Seven would get a choice which type of slot to cast with, but now he can't use his level 3 warlock slots until he's used up his level 3 spell slots. Also, despite the Highberry's generous reward, we broke into their wine cellar and robbed them blind. Sorry.
The rainy camp has been thoroughly pillaged, so the party can move into the Elfsong later today; it offers little but fresh fish, added to Gale's stash for Tara. Checking up on Derryth Bonecloak, I provide Myshka with a "Merrmer", and find a furtive peddler of battle aids to the left of her shop's entrance. Taking Gale to Sorcerous Sundries, I'm waylaid by Florrick, so I reload a save to put Wyll and Karlach (needed for some shopkeepers) in the party. After we receive the Ansur quest, and Seven lets Karlach catch up with her old buddy Fytz, we march to Aradin, wait to be noticed, and choose the right options to avoid an ambush at camp tonight; I wish there was an option to do more for him. Bringing both Gale and Karlach to Sorcerous Sundries is a good idea, banter-wise. Next the Devil's Fee, where we just look at the special wares. To meet Tara, Seven and Karlach jump on the roof; Gale and Wyll follow, using the Boots of Very Fast Blinking. Levelup time; we return to Rivington and I swap out all team members before levelling to reset vendor stock, so I can make Lucretious accumulate those Potions of Angelic Reprieve, and bless Ast before he pickpockets Akabi. Zarah is stocking the rarer dyes now, and Popper and Bumpnagel have the right alchemy stuff (Popper always has deep-fried miniature giant space hamsters, what's up with that?) while Ferg Drogher will be getting the Roah treatment. I even exchange our surplus raw meat and lesser wines for Queelia's soups.
The final party composition is Karlach, Jaheira and Astarion to find the Guildhall and kickstart Minsc's quest. On the way there, in the sewers, "Lae'Zel" confronts me; the abduction has finally happened, just as planned. Not wanting to agree to Orin's deal, I pick every option to insult her, before and after her big reveal and while she's imitating Gortash, until she gets fed up and leaves. Which would mean that the Bhaalists that she would have called off, will attack me? Whatever, we're ready for them. I also hear out each companion; some want to kill Gortash, some to rescue Lae'Zel, Ast and Jaheira pity Orin for thinking she can handle Lae, Minthara has nothing to say. As the party enters the room that Lae'Zel has burst out of, the Emperor tells me his old hideout is up a ladder. While we pass into the cellar, he warns us that githyanki are nearby. They must be behind the door with the button. I save, open the door, peek through: seven of them, all dealing psychic damage, and two portals to summon more. How do I keep getting sidetracked like this? They seem to be frozen waiting, so, you know what? Reload save, keep door closed, find Nine-Fingers, and come back later, because this fight is something for Minthara.
(The journal pretends we found the hideout via the Elfsong basement, and need to clear out the giths to reach it. We don't. Locating it via the sewers is much more convenient.)
Speaking of getting sidetracked; we did of course run into Bhaalists shooting at refugees, go overboard with spells (Spike Growth, Cloud of Daggers) to kill the Bhaalists, and fail to save the refugees, whose death was scripted. Luckily, continuing that route led to a waypoint and Arabella. And a whole lot of grease, that we side-stepped for now. Ast rolled a critical 1 twice before unlocking a door marked "No Entry, No Exit" that led us straight to Severn's bar. Now we're scoping out the Guildhall and chatting to the hired Zhentarim. Some of them don't seem to realize that they're here to backstab the Guild; one poor sap is a former Flaming Fist who thought he would be laid off due to the Steel Watch. Do talk to Karcen Gravedigger with Jaheira in the party, her reaction is lovely.
(Checked the wiki: Slick Inatra (carries the Iron Flask) and Lugarrio don't know. Will try to save them; the other Zhents are dead meat. The wiki also says the eyepatch can be returned to Mol, but there is no dialogue option to do so.)
Jaheira asks Nine-Fingers about Minsc, while Ast sneaks behind Nine-Fingers' bookcase, burgles her safe and goes down a ladder to open a secret door to the sewers, but to make up for it, he sends all collected bottles of Moonshae Zinfandel to Seven who puts them back on their shelves, even though that quest was cut from the game. Conferring with companions, Karlach is the only one to come up with a useful reaction; Jaheira doesn't think Minsc is the Stone Lord, while Minthara says that where she comes from, Minsc is the subject of stories to scare children. And Lae is out cold somewhere, but she wouldn't know who Minsc is anyway. Tired of fights, we leave through the entrance in the alley and jump down to the fishmongers' beach, forgetting that the sahuagin attack happens here. Seven throws a Globe of Invulnerability over the nearest three civilians and, for some reason, gets a drop in attitude from them?? But they're pretty grateful once the sahuagin are dead (Jaheira plus speed potion and repeated Chain Lightning). I didn't think anything of the note in the chief sahuagin's smelly pouch last run, but now I think it's from the Iron Throne, and addressed to the Waveservants. Will check later.
A dug-up chest (which cannot be looted without being arrested, unless one is crouching and invisible) draws attention to a crate, behind which is a gap in the wall to Philgrave Manor's basement that a halfling can easily fit through, though looting from the top shelves requires said halfling to put on a tall person disguise. The bottle racks in this basement actually contain bottles! Going up the stairs leads to news hawker Silfy and the Heapside Strand waypoint. I pop into Felogyr's Fireworks - the proprietor, who seems such a nice, safety-conscious person, is a tadpoled agent of Gortash - but I'm not going to start anything yet, so no passphrase; and enter Philgrave Mansion, where Mystic Carrion detects that someone in my party possesses the Necromancy of Thay, and hasn't unlocked it. As Jaheira is currently a spore druid, I buy her the Armour of the Sporekeeper; the huge sum I pay for it is not found in Carrion's inventory, but seemingly disappears. All the more reason to loot his doubly-dead corpse for the other artefacts later. Jaheira should now be able to produce haste spores; sadly, all spore types work only once per long rest.
We pass a destroyed belltower (the bell can actually make a sound) that has mattresses on each floor, and a little garden by the side where Seven grabs some flowering herbs, then reads the sign. Whoops, each flower requires one gold donation to Chauntea, and, being honest, we leave three gold pieces, although I can't seem to drop them in the provided bowl. Then, being greedy looters, we grab the abandoned rucksack with ingredients in the tower. We jump down by the couple looking for Figaro's shop, and address the Steel Watcher patiently waiting on the stairs, to get the dialogue about Karlach being a malfunctioning unit. I speak to the journalist that starts the quest Stop the Presses. Jaheira mocks me for being Araj Oblodra's guinea pig, but I love the nutty scientist that makes my blood go boom. Visited Flymms for more Karlach dialogue, Oliver Tefoco who we barely robbed because he's a nice guy, the Bibliophile to check out the scrolls, and the Lodge to get Omeluum's quest (and read the angry "Mindflayers Go Home" letter in their mailbox). The moment I even mention the githyanki egg, Havkelaag thinks I have it with me and would sell it, but I'm not about to let Blurg get killed. Saved that snooty counterfeiter (see his basement) Figaro Pennygood. Took a peek at nearby shops, but they have nothing I need. Ventured towards the Upper City gate, had mind broken by netherbrain, got yelled at by Emperor on the second attempt. Chill, Empy.
Strangely, Figaro's shop assistants are missing. On returning to buy more rare dyes, I investigate upstairs; there they are, murdered. That didn't happen in the previous playthrough. Is it because I went down to the basement before rescuing Figaro? There's no suitable save to reload, so, alas poor Phlanders.
Another character I've missed: in Rivington, the ox in the barn was a normal ox, not the strange ox from the grove that I expected. Entering the Lower City before finding and speaking to the strange ox makes it disappear. No Boon of the Shapeshifter ring for me, and no powerful ally in the end fight. On the upside: no Phasm of Cyric massacring Baldurians despite having sworn to lead a peaceful life.
And no, the Waterlogged Letter is not addressed to the Waveservants. To Gondians on the surface, more like.
We've had our second rest today, so it's time to do the Baldur's Mouth quest; Minsc will have to wait, along with Bareki and a few remaining merchants. I already know how this works: separate Ast from the group so he remains in the building after the party is kicked out, have him lockpick the central door behind Ettvard Needle and steal an article from the wastebasket nearby, then burgle the room behind that door for the key to the basement door, then sneak down and around the Steel Watchers to the printing press fairy (who will help because we saved Dolly Thrice, ha!), then back to the elevator to travel out of the red zone and from there to camp, all while hiding and chugging invis potions to stay unnoticed. Along the way, Ast nabs many posters of Gortash that, on entering inventory, revert to paintings of a tiefling, and are valuable. The process is so painless that we may have time for Minsc after all. To the Counting House.
But wait. In the Counting House, we'll encounter invisible Bhaalists. After Minsc's flight into the Abandoned Cistern, more Bhaalists in the sewers. Can I clear out the sewers first, using other companions who haven't burned through their spell slots yet? Reddit says yes. Goodbye, Jaheira and Astarion; hello, Gale and Spiritblender Shart. Invisible NPCs become visible when they take damage, for which Shart just has to walk past them, or when they're doused in water, and she has bottles to spare. I give Aelis a wide berth, but still attract his attention, oops, and now I may no longer traverse his domain (while visible, anyway). A large drainpipe across a puddle of caustic brine shows we're getting close to Minsc's escape route, as do the voices of three Bhaalists talking about "faceless ones". The first water bottle is thrown to wash off the smear of caustic brine on the drainpipe, so we don't hurt our feet while tiptoeing closer. The whole party can see the cultists, having used scrolls (more useful than elixirs) of See Invisible. They have Aura of Murder, so should be killed at range, and Darkvision, but that won't help them against Cloudkill. Gale hasn't learned that spell yet, but carries scrolls aplenty. One of them has three charges of Unstoppable, but, how convenient, Seven's Eldritch Blast has three rays. They summon a "murder of crows" that fly into the Spirit Guardian barrier and blind Shart, who doesn't need sight to cast healing. The only annoyance is that the party wasted potions of invisibility, only to be spotted anyway as soon as they entered the sight cone. After the fight, we locate Bareki (nabbing Sarin's skull for later) and the waypoint near the Temple of Bhaal.
Ready for the day's finale? Ast and Jaheira are swapped back in, and Shart's items distributed amongst them:
On the way down to the Counting House vault, we discover a disconcerting number of forgery kits. In the conveniently deserted vault, we shamelessly steal from all the safes. Ast uses the Boots of Very Fast Blinking to zip from vault door to vault door in no more than his underwear. Not wearing the Gloves of Thievery means that he breaks several lockpicking kits, found in the inventory of both Ast and main char Seven, and it turns out that replacement kits are taken first from the main character's pack, then from the lockpicker's, leaving Seven lockpickless. A nice find is an Amulet of Restoration; now Jaheira has her own, instead of needing to borrow Shart's. I do feel bad about emptying safe number 8, the key of which had been left for Nine-Fingers Keene as payment; somebody's in trouble now.
We can't sneak up on Minsc unseen; there is a cutscene in which we loudly announce ourselves. The fight is doable but unsatisfactory. Glitterbeard and two of his cashguards stand below us, the third guard has run up the stairs. Karlach and Ast have so much initiative-enhancing gear that they share a first place in the queue, and can each dimension-door the other two party members to Glitterbeard and put him and his closest guards under a Globe of Invulnerability - and the dumbasses run out from under it! Ast's Radiant Orb gear doesn't make the Bhaalists visible if they don't run towards him, but instead almost kill the guard furthest away. We waste consumables to mistystep towards her, throw healing potions at her and fly back to our protective dome. The ranged attack guards are useless, but the one with the maul slays. Some Bhaalists end up KO; sadly, the party casters fail to recover a spell slot with Spellthief. Returning to the Undercity Ruins: we have to enter the manhole into the sewers to properly trigger journal entries. Zap back to Undercity waypoint, locate Abandoned Cistern, open door through pure strength (thank you Karlach) and at the end of a long sewer pipe are more cultists that we should have killed along with the three we first encountered. And Boss Friol, and Minsc. Seven sighs that he needs to rest soon, and I agree: we can't just attack these people, first we have to go back and deal with the Zhents by the Guildhall. After a long nap. In the Elfsong.
Now a waitress, Lakrissa supposedly slips Seven some good booze before running up to the roof, but I can find nothing in his inventory. We meet Alfira and check out Stelmane's crime scene, but otherwise don't mingle, except to persuade Alan to give us a room for free. I somehow make six from a stack of seven bottles of red dye disappear by dragging them to another inventory square in the camp chest. Seven chats to all party members about Minsc, then ends the day. Karlach wants to go on a date! Time to try out the fancy clothes we've collected. The Winter Gala Doublet looks unexpectedly flattering on Seven. Karlach wears his silver-dyed Anarchic Blue Outfit for the night. She looks stunning, although it clips a bit. They pop back up at the Elfsong after dinner and canoodling at Henk's (Seven looks ridiculous with his splayed legs) and talk for a bit, ready for long-resting; it really has been a long day. That very night, Emps invites Seven to more canoodling; the look of horror on the companions' faces afterwards may be due, not to Seven's romp with tentacles, but to his strangely bent willy.
The morning after, Mizora has an exclamation mark over her head, but all she says is "Come for a chat?" with no answer except "Leave". Ast banters about Karlach's date. The day's newspaper quotes an "expert" that adventurers are better for the city than the Steel Watch, mentions Glitterbeard, and has a picture of Minsc as the Stone Lord. We make the rounds of most Lower City shops, getting a free sample (one smokepowder arrow) from Felogyr's Fireworks by bringing up Gortash, and the daily sanguine explosives from Araj, then descend to the Guildhall to kill all Zhents except Inatra and Lugarrio, who are improvisedweaponed to the City Sewers waypoint, where the former is divested of the Iron Flask, and knocked out - in this case, by having her summoned wolf companion tossed at her when she's near death.
Sarin's headless ghost is following us, and as it's sensitive to the radiant damage we intend to dish out, Ast puts on his stealth wear to return her skull to her coffin. Given the expanse of grease, and the charred cultist corpses still needing to be plundered, Seven wears the anti-slip Nightwalkers, Ast uses the Corvid Token to birdshape so he can fly, and both sneak around invisibly while Karlach and Jaheira pay their respects to the dead by playing a sad song from a safe distance. Once Seven has finished looting, the Nightwalkers are passed to Ast, who chooses an unobserved spot to detransform and get Greater Invisibility cast on him (as Aelis is REALLY touchy about us trespassing), in order to lockpick the grate, empty the chest and insert the skull.
The remaining Zhents can't be killed in the Guildhall, or the Guild joins in their fight against us. The idea is to abduct them to the City Sewers waypoint, but after choosing the Lower City Central Wall by accident, that's where I end up piling their corpses, which will require stealth and a means of hiding to loot. We take them over two at a time; the citizens cower for as long as each fight lasts, then go about their day as if nothing happened. But shoot an Arrow of Darkness, and random citizens may put up their fists - go figure. So, invisible looting, and no cleaning up the bodies. Lacy Dancer has on her person a touching limerick; she belongs on the "Zhents to be spared" list. Good thing she's only knocked out.
Back to the Abandoned Cistern: we could rush down the pipe into the Stone Lord's hideout, but doing so reveals extra invisible enemies. What if we cast a minor illusion to lure Minsc into the pipe, then start a fight at the best chokepoint ever? Jaheira has summoned a dryad who has summoned a wood woad, and after the dryad has cast Spiky Growth at the pipe entrance where Minsc and cohorts have followed the kittycat, causing all enemies including the invisible ones to join the initiative queue, Seven lays down a Cloud of Daggers before it, and familiars are summoned as cannon fodder. Minsc and one unlucky henchperson dash through these obstacles, to be respectively knocked out and killed, prompting a quick reload because the dryad, told to knock off more of the almost-dead Minsc's hit points, turns out not to have a non-lethal passive. After the reload, Jaheira delivers the knockout blow herself, and now the remaining enemies are stuck behind the spike growth, missing turn after turn. Nyrulna was simply made for this situation, and Astarion, wielding Selune's Spear of Night, has a jolly time shifting a moonbeam around, then dashing out of reach.
After the battle, I save, because keeping both Minsc and Jaheira in the party requires specific steps. Boo is recovered, and Astarion sent to camp, as he will not approve the choices I'll make in the Guildhall and Counting House. We adjourn for a readjusting equipment session, where Shadowheart's gear is returned, and Minsc gets Sparkstruck items, the Hunting Bow and Circlet, and better swords. Then, a round of conversation: Jaheira calls Seven "cub"; Shart thinks Boo and his pet Minsc may prove useful additions; Mint enthuses over the Steel Watch; Karlach enthuses over Minsc. At Nine-Fingers' desk, we meet Trinoda, who tells us the Zhentarim are taking over, a second before she's knifed to death. Nine-Fingers has the same dialogue tree for everyone, so Jaheira can ask her how she and Jaheira met.
We loot the Abandoned Cistern and collect mementos of older Baldur's Gate characters. Then up a ladder into the hidden section of a gardening shed; Seven opens the door and moves the crates so everyone can jump over the mine. No idea what the pressure plates do. Out past the playground and the mourning couple, crossing a rail track, the game autosaves and yes, the Volo cutscene; Minsc recognizes him. Non-lethal or not, Jaheira is out to kill, because we haven't levelled up yet and Minsc only has 11 hit points. Seven dimension-doors Karlach to Volo where she steals all the smokepowder barrels and sends them to camp; the civilian who came running to catch a thief mutters that there has to be more evidence somewhere. Freed, Volo dashes to the docks. Jaheira creates one fungal zombie after another, yet somehow manages to kill half of them. To avoid a run-in with the law, as soon as the fight is over, we run to the docks to speak to Volo, help the refugees by the boat, and chat to the fishing crew complaining about oil. And that's how we discover another waypoint.
Glitterbeard gets all the stolen money back, yet most of it seems to have stayed in its bag. Bug? (The game withdraws money from the camp chest, rather than the bag I carry.) At camp, Seven has a convo with Minsc that is longer than I remember from the previous run. We return to the high security vaults to let Minsc apologize to an unimpressed Glitterbeard, then busk while Ast (Greater Invisibility, Pass Without Trace) extracts the valuables - breaking all lockpicks, using up all but one inspo - then have the ladies pick up the Bhaalist corpses to stow inside the camp chest, from where they send new lockpicks to Ast. A door leads to the docks, but going through it has us stopped by the guard, and teleported to the Counting House entrance. Invisible and crouching, Ast and Seven clean out the rest of the bank building including the offices upstairs, where they use two potions of Gaseous Form to pass through the pipe that leads to a terrace on the roof. Karlach tries to join them there by jumping off another roof, but whether jumping, flying or mistystepping; it's too far. She does find and empty a beehive next to Beehive General Goods. Standing on a pile of three boxes, Seven uses Disrobing Blink to alight on the roof proper, but the wearables he drops before blinking are red-outlined and Astarion can't pick them up. Reload and have Seven disrobe before blinking. The roof offers nothing but a bird's nest that can't be looted.
Levelled up everyone while loading Ferg's, Lucretious's and Popper's goods into bags that we sold them. Got ready to Roah the slimy Sharran; one toss by Karlach was all it took. His loot buys us the latter two's accumulated merchandise. Took Shart and Ast to the graveyard to visit various relevant graves; failed a roll against the kobold, will have to kill them all now, tough luck. Snooped around and dug up every grave - the last reveals a hole that even a rat or gaseous mist is too big to crawl through (bug?) - robbed each mausoleum but left Carrion's lungs in the mortuary basement for now, the owner needs to study them for her customers' benefit. Discovered that Big Boy Chewtoy only works on the character that carries it, and its spell ends when unwielded. Previous run, I persuaded the mourning girl not to resurrect her brother; this time, Us accidentally lures her up the stairs so that when Seven helps her out, she's a safe distance away from the raised undead. We toss, spiritblender and eliminate the undeads without a single civilian casualty (yes, all these level 1 NPCs that rush to join the fray) but the Mortiarch is still spitting mad at us. What else to do today? I could squash in Candulhollow after the last short rest; planned to take Jaheira and Minsc, kept Ast and Shart instead to i. rob the summoned soul, ii. blind Sarevok's Echoes. Sarevok himself is practically paralyzed by a Stinking Cloud, but his servants use Cloudkill. Good thing the camp caster gives us poison resistance each morning. Took Jaheira and Minsc to free the hollyphant (for amusing dialogue) and thoroughly loot all parts of the hideout and house, including the roof. Finished the day by musically accompanying Alfira on the roof of the Elfsong.
Rise and shine, today is tourist day: exploring Baldur's Gate (Lower City). Started with the Elfsong. Helped out a woman near Roveer's kitchen; Ast didn't even disapprove. Won Laff Riot, found Keepsake Ring (casts Dominate Beast) among the rats in the cellar - now I no longer need a druid for the follower exploit - and secret entrance to where the Gith wait, caused a spat between the Throaks couple by making Clovia blurt out that she's running off with Tamia Holzt. Found drug stash on rooftop. Put night orchid on grave for Shart. Raided Stelmane's parlour, Derryth's basement, Helsik's secret cellar, and Araj's home. Passed Lacy Dancer, standing on the bloodstains of her disappeared Zhent companions, wide awake; good to see she's OK. Saved the hag survivors, got herb for hag, sampled the riches of Old Garlow's cellar. Spotted the Bhaalist ambush in Bloomridge park, returned to camp to strategize. Party: Karlach, Wyll, Halsin.
The cultists are half gathered by a basin, half crouched on high outposts around it. Karlach is needed to toss down the cultist near the dating couple, who has three stacks of Unstoppable and is therefore unmovable until Seven blasts them away: they will have to invisibly sneak to that one together, upon which Seven drinks a speed potion, then magic-missiles (can't afford to miss!) this cultist and another one with Unstoppable down below, so Karlach can throw the one at the other. Halsin can summon an elemental, a minor elemental, and a dryad that summons a wood woad. Wyll, wearing the Corvid Token for Feather Fall, can summon two flying helpers: a cambion and an imp. That makes six meat shields; Scratch and Us make eight. To be summoned after leaving camp, else there's a message that summons can't travel through waypoints.
The fight took some reloads to achieve without getting civilians killed or angering the guards. Casting Globe of Invulnerability over civilians is seen as a bad spell effect, and the citizens I'm trying to save will run out from under it. The Reaper of Bhaal closest to the well has Sanctuary, and can only be hit by area spells like Spike Growth, that the guards will run into. Halsin summoned only one elemental, a water myrmidon, and a dryad to protect it from poison; Karlach summoned only Us, to avoid confusing Scratch with the other white dog running around in the park. The most important thing is to go turn-based, ungroup everyone, including the summons, make them all invisible, have them hide (except the dryad and her wood woad, who don't have this ability) and sneak into position. Then, Seven attacks - the enemy is Surprised - and I immediately change to Karlach, because the attack ends turn-based, to re-enter turn-based. Karlach attacks; switch to Halsin, re-enter turn-based, Halsin attacks, etc. Turn-based has to be restored for each still invisible party member so that their invisibility doesn't run out, letting them attack with advantage. Another complication is that even though the enemy is surprised, entering battle may mean being moved to the end of the initiative row, so don't use bonus actions yet, but make that first attack count.
Seven, wearing the Coruscation Ring to go with his illuminated Spellsparkler, 3xmagicmissiles Death's Head Spaulder, who is crouching near an arguing couple, drinks speed potion, and 4xmagicmissiles Cirian and the Sinister Hooded Man who she berates for looking like he's wearing a bathrobe, hence he shall be Bathrobe Man; the fourth magic missile is for him, so now all three have Radiating Orb. Enemy is Surprised. Us takes a bite out of Spaulder, Karlach throws him at Cirian. The imp bites the closest of the two crossbow-carrying Night Blades, who is then attacked by the dryad and wood woad, who entangle her. The cambion flies to the furthest Night Blade and hits her with three rays of fire. Halsin uses one of the many Fireball scrolls we've collected; Cirian, Spaulder and Bathrobe Man are now on fire. Wyll uses a scroll of Ice Storm to hit these three - two are now down - plus Clotilde, protected by Sanctuary, near the fountain. The myrmidon warps down to where they are but, like most party members, is now at the end of the initiative queue. Seven ends his turn, the Bhaalists skip theirs, the party can now finish their turns. The myrmidon blasts the three, killing Cirian, then warps to the far Night Blade. Karlach takes a speed potion and hurls Nyrulna until her actions run out, finishing off all three. Halsin uses his bonus action to kill the nearest Night Blade with Woad's Ensnaring Strike; all civilians are now safe. Wyll mistysteps to, and offs, the far Night Blade. The first round is survived only by Clotilde.
The next round starts with Seven, but he waits for a Fist captain to run to Clotilde and confront him in a cutscene. The Ice Storm surface having turned into a big puddle, Seven shoots a fire arrow to remove the water under the Fist and cultist before lobbing a befuddling Merregon Potion at Clotilde - otherwise, when wielding the Spellsparkler, even this nonmagical missile will electrify the whole puddle - and mistysteps next to them. Befuddled, Clotilde still stabs Seven for almost half his hitpoints. Karlach jumps down and throws Clotilde across the puddle; the landing blow kills him. Victory! Inspo for both Karlach and Halsin. Cutscene of Elder Brain speaking through captain, who dies. Wyll busks to distract the other Fists while the captain's gear and tadpole are stolen.
Of all the unusual substances found in various nooks and crannies, let it be known that the discarded wine bottle (paralytic poison), dream mist, silkroot, essence of ether, fire explosives and earth grenades are worthless in combat, although Scratch will happily retrieve the last two if thrown. The suspicious potion (poison), sleep potion and Karabasan's Gift (paralysis) are throwables, unsuitable for dipping.
It appears that one bottle of dream mist remains at the site where the Guild fought the Zhentarim. Since we jumped past the traps, they are still there, waiting to be disarmed - or exploded with Eldritch Blast. Seven and Wyll get busy. Oops, blasting the tripwire in the steam cloud triggered an electricity storm - damn you, Spellsparkler - and killed two. Reload and try again. Wait, the party was hit by Chain Lightning from an eagle statue! Where is that statue? Didn't see it before. A nearby rotten basket isn't too porous to block the steam vent, so Astarion can disarm the second tripwire. But what about that dream mist? The wiki states: "On a barrel X: -1335 Y: -835 in the passageway from Western Beach." I can't find it. Maybe it was blown up. As we go back through Wyrm's Rock Fortress, the background music goes "dun dun duuuunn!" Wyll and Astarion banter about Gortash and the way he easily took over Baldur's Gate.
No special Thieves Guild rings are needed to access the Guildhall this run, maybe because I brought Jaheira along. Sold all drugs except terazul to Severn. Placed last Moonshae Zinfandel I could find.
I try to warn Nesha Leesha but don't get the dialogue option because I already killed Dolor, duh. At the bar in the Blushing Mermaid, I don't see the patrons on the floor above, but I do see their floating mugs being raised.
Return to camp for Fuzzy Lumps to brew the Hag's Bane potion: he brews two. I manage to make dye bottles disappear again by separating stacks inside the camp chest: reload save, now I pick up part of the stack and then transfer back to the camp chest, and that works.
While Fuzzy Lumps is in the party, have him transform to a blue jay (so no cutscenes will be triggered), check out the upper floors of Felogyr's Fireworks and Umberlee's temple, and fly around in the Foundry. He will also cast Longstrider on summons who didn't have it yet.
First, Umberlee's temple, scene of the funeral wake, with soothing choral music. The invisible imp and the visible jay fly towards the door upstairs, while the water myrmidon hops over the terrace's southernmost edge, only to be fwooshed back to the temple's entrance. The imp can't open the red-outlined door, but the blue jay, for whom the door is white-outlined, can! Meanwhile, Halsin and Wyll descend the steps to the three fishermen and dig up a chest. Halsin accidentally starts a conversation, ending turn-based, and Fuzzy Lumps, who has flown all the way to the bedroom, detransmutes in sight of the guard, but rolls a natural 20 to deceive her that he belongs here. Phew! He takes nothing, but reads the books about tempest clerics and raising shipping tariffs. Back to turn-based to cross the overhead bridge to the opposite room where another guard stands; will she also require deception? Moot point, as I clumsily knock the party out of turn-based again, and Fuzzy runs through the room and back down the stairs, detransmuting as he goes. I retransmute him to return to the first room, where, in gnome form, he reads the book "Counting the Conchs" [sic] and steals some ingredients from a small unobserved chest.
Back down the steps and around to where the sacrifices to Umberlee are kept, not to steal them but to completely explore the map. The blue jay can't open this door, so Seven invisibly sneaks up to it, then uses Disrobing Blinkstep to get past the door without being discovered.
Jump to the Grey Harbour Docks waypoint; have party discover vent outside Foundry. Only Seven, the imp, and the blue jay can pass through it, and both wingflappers need Seven to haul them back out through the vent once they're done mapping the interior. The blue jay has to be careful to stay out of sight, as red-outlined characters will attack this poor, harmless little bird.
Lastly, Felogyr's: have the blue jay open the door on the first floor and fly up to the opening on the second floor, where, once the Steel Watch is dispatched, it might be a good strategy to enter invisibly, steal all smokepowder barrels and yeet everyone down.
Back to the Blushing Mermaid. Examine cellar, shoot Arrow of Darkness, pass Shadeclinger Armour around (bug: if taken off while in darkness, the saving throws buff remains) - oops, this cost Wyll his Mage Armour status. Luckily, there's a scroll for that. Agree with Nafulna, so her father stomps off. As in the previous run, improvisedweapon all six Tipplesome Patrons to the sewers, this time by Halsin after quaffing a strength elixir, where he has to knock out Slick Inatra again. Despite being ungrouped, Halsin's three summons teleport along with him, until he outruns them and has to collect them at the Baldur's Gate waypoint, which is where he returns from the sewer.
Next, enter the cellar, put firewine barrels, surprise teddy bears and other explosives around pearlspore bells, and exchange social buffs (especially Seven) for fighting and initiative buffs; Ast gets the Sussur Dagger. It's best not to start a convo with "Captain Grisly", just throw the hagsbane at her so she vomits Vanra up before escaping to the cellar. Astarion declares that they're going to kill the hag and make her stay dead this time. Wyll's cambion one-shots a pearlspore bell, Ast one-shots another. The third is a bit harder and gives Ethel the chance to summon her Masks AND create five doubles who all cast Ethel's Insect Plague in an area that includes themselves and the Masks. Ast is knocked out - so much for that Sussur Dagger. Seven loses blood which goes BOOM! The imp and dryad succumb to the insects. But in the next round, Halsin bearshapes and batters the real Ethel, the last pearlspore bell is eldritch-blasted, and so is the hag. Victory.
Finishing up: loot hag lair with its many flower traps, steal as much from Captain Grisly's cabin as I'm comfortable with, busk to distract Nafulna, nab the underpants on the stage, speak to the bosun, take shrapnel grenades from dead redcaps in sewer. Collect rewards from all hag victims.
Now, to enlist Jaheira and Minsc, and examine every as yet un-entered home, looking for Bhaalist victims. I'd never visited the Armbrusts before, but even after finding their message from Nine-Fingers, they wouldn't let me help in any way. Ditto Nortale's Hostel. Jol is out and clearly doesn't like visitors. Franc Peartree's house elicits no response from Jaheira. Plundered Guild shack for two Guild rings, some gold and all the Guild's correspondence. Minsc banter with Karlach: he still wants to crush the guildmaster. Even in death, Alexander Rainforest does not suffer fools: "Murdered... obviously." Orin left him the same note as Peartree, maybe a bug since he wasn't dealing in infernal arms, but investigating the tombstone shop. Still no reaction from Jaheira. Good way of disarming traps, if Ast isn't available: send in Seven and let him take the hit if he fails.
Visited, but did not loot, the house of Jaheira's children, except to collect items from Jaheira's hideout. Enjoyed the verbal exchanges. Good thing I took Karlach along when asking Jaheira about her special scroll. Everyone in camp agrees with her destroying it, except, of course, Minthara. Swapped Karlach for Shart to examine graffiti behind the house; Jaheira brings up Viconia, who we're not supposed to know about yet. Now that we have a cleric, let's tackle Lady Jannath's estate. Shart's Guiding Bolts are much more effective against the Cursed Skulls than Seven's Eldritch Blasts. We carefully clean all blood by tossing water on it, so as not to leave Lady Jannath with explosive puddles of blood-that-goes-boom. Let Minsc solve the empty easel puzzle, he has amusing dialogue. Seven rewards himself by stealing all the weaponry, but we let Oskar keep his paintings. We skipped the ghosts on the ground floor, as they throw the grease and wine bottles on the shelves, which is a waste; they should disappear when the hidden portrait is destroyed.
To end the day, located Golbraith's house for shield; gave it to Minthara; together with Ketheric's armour, she can use it to help us fight our way towards Bhaal's temple. Apart from the boss fight areas, the Lower City is now fully explored. Oh shoot, Halsin suddenly has the hots for me. So as to let him down gently, I promise to discuss things with Karlach, later. Much later.
Since I heard of the Shadeclinger Armour bug - don armour, stand in darkness for buff, remove armour but keep buff, pass onto next companion and repeat - the morning routine is now more complicated; using Arrows of Darkness, everyone buffs themselves before Sir Fuzzy Lumps casts Mage Armour on Wyll and Gale.
Two druids and a ranger walk into a bar... Halsin will be accompanying Jaheira and Minsc, and the banter will hopefully be less repetitive than if Karlach comes along. And less awkward. Off to Philgrave Manor. But first, buy a gazette from Silfy. A rather belated main article, as we've already presented the evidence to Devella days ago: "Vigilantes Poke Their Snoots in Sordid Murder Investigation". Halsin/Minsc banter is just as bad; now they're referring to the bear scene which didn't happen.
When trading, Mystic Carrion makes money go fwoosh, so instead I barter with goods which I pack into a bag in his inventory, to be recovered on death. Jump/fly up on the roof to investigate second floor, sadly skipped first floor before talking to Thrumbo, now I can't return because Philgrave Mansion will be hostile. To the undercity tomb to grab the canopic jars. Any living being who uses levelled magic there will be cursed with Spell Rot. Jaheira is protected by Khalid's Amulet, Minsc has the Automaton Gloves and Sarevok's fearproof helmet, Halsin will wildshape, and Seven will only use cantrips. Minsc carries the Light of Lathander, and two enchanted hand crossbows, as Hunter's Bow and Bow of the Banshee don't work on undead. Halsin has put on the Seraphic Pugilist Gloves, Oak Father's Embrace and the Holy Lance Helm for radiant damage - I wonder if they'll function while wildshaped (spoiler, they don't) - and carries Selune's Spear of Night as backup. Seven wears the undead-turning Veil of the Morning bought from Mystic Carrion himself.
As we queue up before the Passageway, it occurs to me that Minsc can have three summons: a standard animal summon, a Beast Master Ranger's companion summon, and Boo. No, wait: two summons, as Boo replaces the weak standard animal summon. Jaheira summons an air myrmidon, Halsin a dryad who calls a wood woad to her side. From the halfling corpse in the antechamber of the Ancient Lair, Jaheira experimentally raises a winged ghoul. We can't reach the bowls of incense in the alcoves; after the fight, I'll try to knock them down with a mage hand.
We enter the main lair and assemble on the central platform. As soon as someone loots anything or attacks the mummy corpses, Spell Rot sets in, and the door out of the Ancient Lair is shut and locked; the first time I forgot to bring in Halsin, and had to reload. Of the four pillars surrounding the platform, one is short and bears inscribed stones hinting at Mystic Carrion's origin; bg3.wiki says standing on it makes a character immune to the curse, but there's only room for two, so that's Seven and the air myrmidon. Halsin goes cave bear, the dryad casts Shillelagh, Minsc assumes Form of Artifice, and the dryad kicks off the fight by casting Spike Growth on a group of Ancient Servants. Oops, Artifact Minsc is still susceptible to Spell Rot; Jaheira was provided with a stack of uncursing scrolls for just such a situation. Seven casts Haste on self and Minsc and throws a potion of Haste on Jaheira, then eldritch-blasts to cause Reverberation and Radiant Orb. Jaheira shifts a Moonbeam around. Minsc shoots arrows of Undead Slaying and/or Many Targets, throws undead around to prone them, and blinds them with the Light of Lathander. It turns out that if Seven and the myrmidon stand on the corners, Minsc fits on the slab too. The myrmidon dazes reverbed undead with its electric flail. Cave Bear Halsin is a bit underwhelming and does no radiant damage at all, but, like Minsc's boar companion, tanks nicely and deals finishing blows. The dryad trips up and entangles enemies with her shillelagh. The fight is won with only one casualty: the winged ghoul.
Summoned mage hand. Jaheira drank colossus elixir. Neither could reach incense in alcoves. Hm.
Collected all canopic jars, put them on a roof, exploded them, doused roof with water. Minsc wields The Long Arm of the Gur for the next Philgrave Manor visit. Took Reddit advice to normally give him Harold which, if he respecs back to Hunter and uses the Ranger actions Horde Breaker and Volley, will Bane several enemies at once. Wyll, who had Harold, gets hand crossbows Ne'er Misser and Firestoker from Minsc; the Hunting Shortbow, giving advantage against Monstrosities, goes to Halsin. Astarion, who had the Hellrider bow for high initiative, gives it to Gale and has the choice of the Dead Shot, Vicious Shortbow, Blightbringer and Least Expected, since he actually uses bows; the Bow of the Banshee goes to Minthara. The +2 and +1 hand crossbows go in Jaheira's slots, since apparently they work well even without proficiency. Halsin gets Strange Tendril Amulet and the Bhaalist gloves, with their Garrotte action, to go with his restraint-enhancing Sharpened Snare Cuirass; the Corvid Token goes back to Wyll. More Reddit advice: raspberries heal for a small amount without needing a (bonus) action, just like Okta's soup (which all party members can ask a portion of, arghh, I wish I'd known in Act I) so they're evenly shared among the companions. Reddit tells me treacle tarts, cups of water and the bowl of milk for His Majesty do, too.
Before dispatching Carrion - with as little damage to his minions as possible, they hate him and want to be free - Seven, as a mere level 6 sorcerer, needs to increase his sorcery points, both for twincasting and for optionally creating extra level 3 spell slots for Counterspell. I saw a trick for this on Youtube. First, convert all level 1 and 2 spell slots to extra sorcery points. Then, convert the sorcery points back to exclusively level 2 spell slots; it's an unequal exchange, as one level 2 spell slot becomes two sorcery points, but it takes three sorcery points to make a level 2 spell slot. Convert spell slots to sorcery points again and back until you've run out of both; the idea is to create more (invisible while empty) level 2 spell slots. Drink potion of Angelic Reprieve: bam, all empty level 1 and 2 spell slots filled and you suddenly have many level 2 spell slots. Convert all level 1 and 2 spell slots to sorcery points again, and drink another potion of Angelic Reprieve: now you have many sorcery points and many filled level 2 spell slots. Not enough? Repeat.
To refine this method: drink elixirs that give extra spell slots, and temporarily don artefacts - the Spell Savant Amulet, the Shield of Devotion or the Undevout - that give an extra spell slot, to build up more sorcery points before converting. Only one elixir can be active at a time, so drink elixir, use up extra spell slot to add sorcery points, drink another elixir, use the next extra spell slot etc. Normally, extra spell slots from elixirs and items would just disappear if you take off the items and/or drink a different elixir, but the sorcery point conversion trick creates extra spell slots that last until long rest. Moreover, bg3.wiki states:
An Elixir of Arcane Cultivation first increases the maximum number of level 1 spell slots by one, and then refills one level 1 spell slot. After using another elixir, only the maximum number of spell slots is returned to normal. Therefore, if the drinker already had an empty level 1 spell slot before using the Elixir of Arcane Cultivation, the spell slot remains filled. The same is true for spell slots of higher levels when using a Greater Elixir of Arcane Cultivation, Superior Elixir of Arcane Cultivation, or Supreme Elixir of Arcane Cultivation.
Note: if Seven empties all level 1 spell slots, gets a new filled level 1 spell slot from an Elixir of Arcane Cultivation, spends that spell slot and drinks another Elixir of Arcane Cultivation, no slot is replenished or created. In other words, I have to alternate between the different spell-slot-creating elixirs, not use the same one twice in a row. And since I keep forgetting where to find the droplet icon for the Create Sorcery Points bonus action: click on any spell slot tab, it's there with the spells. Including the warlock spell slot tab, although warlock spell slots, which refill after a short rest, can't be changed into or created from sorcery points.
To finish our business at Philgrave Manor, Astarion replaces Jaheira. We will loot this house from top to bottom, first redoing the cellar, then Seven twincasting Greater Invisibility on himself and Astarion, who knows Pass Without Trace (as do the druids, but Ast is stealthier), so they can work their way down from the second floor, checking out the gory hidden room for loot, then meet Minsc and Halsin at the bottom of the stairs. Then, everyone invisibly sneaks to the little room behind Mystic Carrion, where Ast lockpicks the chest and sends the Torch of Revocation to camp. There, that's done. Now what?
After a few false starts where the wood woad set its dryad and itself on fire by creating a vine surface that destroyed wine bottles near burning candles, this is how it went down: Halsin threw Mystic Carrion, who is completely immune to normal weapon damage, to get him a safe distance away and also prone him, which starts combat and reveals our invisible selves. Minsc takes a speed potion, shoots two arrows of Undead Slaying, to which Mystic Carrion is emphatically not immune, then casts Silence over Mystic Carrion and the nearest mummies. Ast likewise shoots volleys of these potent anti-undead arrows. Minsc's boar companion charges Ulnar the ghast to prone it, but fails. Now the dryad casts entangle on Ulnar (who escapes) and Mystic Carrion. Somehow the vine patch ends up on fire again, but since Mystic Carrion is vulnerable to fire, that's fine. Seven knocks back yet another speed potion, and, wearing the Spineshudder Amulet and the Ring of Coruscation, deals out magic missiles to give all enemies Reverberation and Radiant Orb, because I don't want to hurt the Ancient Servant mummies rushing into battle, I just want to daze them.
We pepper our foe with undead-slaying arrows until he dies, his Ancient Servants throwing curses at us from outside - and sometimes inside - the dome of silence. Astarion dimension-doors a burning - from looting Mystic Carrion, who was still ablaze - Halsin to the lobby to throw water on him; they run outside. Minsc likewise wants to teleport Seven out, but fumbles it. Meanwhile, the dryad and the boar companion have been killed, Seven and Boo have both been Frightened, and Minsc has lost his actions from being nauseated by the ghast's stench. Boo simply dismisses himself. Seven and Minsc are surrounded. What to do? Seven drinks another potion of speed, and uses a scroll of Gust of Wind to blow the ghast and half of the mummies backwards, then throws a Remedial potion on Minsc and himself; this unpoisons Minsc, giving his actions back, but Seven is still Frightened and therefore immobile. Minsc uses his actions, and two Dimension Door scrolls, to get Seven out of the building.
I made two attempts to flee combat in this way. The first time, the companions outside made themselves invisible, so two of the mummies dashed out and attacked a nearby Flaming Fist. Reload. The second time, Minsc placed his Dimension Doors better, Halsin selected Seven for another Dimension door, and all companions ended up far away enough to return to camp, one by one; Seven had to wait until next round for his Frightened status to wear off, during which the mummies did run out the door again, but didn't attack the cowering bystanders. Once all companions were at camp, the surviving wood woad, which had been distracting the undeads from our escape, unsummoned itself.
In camp, Seven solemnly monologues that Mystic Carrion is gone for good. I send him straight back to check for civilian casualties. Standing on the steps leading to the entrance, he's caught in a cutscene with a happy Thrumbo who gives him a necromantic ring and instantly turns trader. Outside. Where two mummies are now hanging out. When I try to speak to them, these ingrates, who I tried so hard not to kill, are angry and want to be pacified with gifts. Ulnar, the ghast, who was hit harder than any of them, bears no grudge at all. Back to camp, refill our inventories with potions of speed and invisibility, give Shart back her radiant gear, then hand all necromancer stuff to Jaheira, and have her take Astarion's place, both to chat with the mummies and apply the Torch of Revocation to the cursed painting in Lady Jannath's attic. For this, I invite Gale and Shart, for two much-needed inspos.
Note: if the Torch of Revocation is equipped as a torch - bg3.wiki says the character should make an offhand attack on the painting in that case - while dual-wielding, hitting the painting makes the freed spirit hostile, and combat will start. To get the satisfying ending where Kerri chews out Oscar, equip only the Torch, as a weapon. The wiki also says that more than one party member can sit for a painting, and a romanced companion will remark on the picture (which I found not to be the case), so, after looting all the rotten food in the kitchen, back I go to switch out party members and recruit Karlach. Most classes can choose the title of their portrait, the default being "The Hero of Baldur's Gate", but even one level of bard automatically gets "Skald Supreme, Orator Extraordinaire, Master of Modesty". Sorry if that's not what you chose, Astarion.
(And Shart gets it too - both after saying they don't want their name on it. But bardlock Wyll, who asks for that title, is given the default. Oskar is surely trolling us.)
The portraits can't be hung on the wall, they are horizontal and must go on the floor; if put on a bed, they become red-outlined. I lay each portrait at the feet of its subject. They're the standard character portraits. Shart's still has black hair. Wyll's doesn't show his horns.
I've tried the trick of making a NPC into a companion through Polymorph and Dominate Beast before, and failed. Reddit offered an example of a NPC who is alread in camp: Mizora. The steps are:
High spell save DC is needed to make this work; the instructions included reclassing as sorceror with Heightened Spell metamagic. Spell save DC is otherwise augmented in four ways:
Note: when secretly opening a forbidden container and choosing "Send to [name]" instead of "Steal", this doesn't seem to trigger a Stealth check. When Jaheira opens the offering chests in the Tabernacle and chooses "Send to Seven" rather than picking up their contents, Seven receives the condition "Castigated by Divinity" instead of her. If she chose "Send to camp", would the camp chest be cursed? Or is this a safe way to loot the offering chests? Maybe this is a bug that's been corrected in Patch 8.
This is how I enlisted Mizora: first, make sure party is grouped and Jaheira has Dominate Beast prepared. Then, distribute items: Seven, who has the Protecty Sparkswall and the Fistbreaker Helm, wields Melf's and Caitiff's staffs, and wears the Amulet of the Devout; Jaheira, already in Armour of the Sporekeeper, dons the Hood of the Weave, puts on the Ring of Feywild Sparks, borrows the Infernal Rapier and Ketheric's Shield, and picks up the Resonance Stone. I should have let them drink an Elixir of Battlemage's Power, and brought a Bard or Cleric into the party to enhance their spell-supporting attributes, but forgot. First, I position Seven near Mizora. Then I walk Jaheira to Mizora and enter turn-based, keeping control of Jaheira so she doesn't walk back to her spot. Jaheira casts Guidance on Seven and is then walked to and fro, staying near Mizora, to use up her movement and root her in place. This is the problem at camp: even in turn-based, a companion, when not controlled, will use up all available movement to walk back to its spot. While Jaheira stands immobile, Seven, at 72% chance of success, polymorphs Mizora, who becomes a cloud of red dust. (She needs time, or a save and reload, to manifest in her sheep shape. Polymorph only lasts five turns, so we don't have time.) End all party member turns, Jaheira's last; when the next round begins, her turn will come first, so she will be controlled by the player, and not start walking away.
Start of next round: at 80% chance of success, Jaheira, still near Mizora, casts Dominate Beast. Now, three fast clicks: end turn-based, leave camp, enter turn-based. Mizora is still invisible, but her (empty) violet-outlined icon shows up at the top of the screen, joined to Jaheira's. I right-click to examine it: Mizora's level is -1, HP -1, everything -1. I address Jaheira to send her out of the party and back to camp, hurrying her through her dialogue with the space bar, because dialogue ends turn-based and uses up valuable time; then go back to turn-based. Jaheira's departure, which ends Dominate Beast, causes the violet-outlined icon to disappear along with Jaheira's, and sheep-Mizora to poof into visibility. I examine the, now blue-outlined (ie. party member) sheep: it has Mizora's old stats back. And only one turn of polymorph to go! And I still have to return to camp and ask Jaheira to re-join before the polymorph runs out!
Panicking, I make Seven cast another polymorph on the sheep in hopes of prolonging the duration. Seven fails and Mizora reappears in all her underdressed glory, but still blue-outlined. I sigh, exit turn-based, return to camp and have Seven trot to Jaheira to invite her back into the party, although, what's the use? Imagine my surprise when Mizora's icon is attached, like a summon's, to Jaheira's. Mizora is in the party now. She has no inventory to put items in, but she's a level 12 sorceror with metamagics and awesome spells, including Counterspell. Two drawbacks: no Mizora in the party without Jaheira (see further down for a solution), and she only has 12 sorcery points that she can't convert to spell slots and back, so that exploit won't work.
So what is companion Mizora like? She still has her old dialogue. She is attached to a party member like a summon, but can't be ungrouped. She can move containers, but not open them. She can pick up a ranged or melee weapon (the "interactive" cursor appears), and wield it, but not dip, drop or throw it, so say goodbye to any weapon you give her. She can't pick up and don armour or jewellery. She will "interact" with potions, elixirs or anything in a bottle by drinking them if possible. She will pick up and use scrolls (an arrow cursor appears) both on herself and others. A scroll of See Invisible does not grant her See Invisible; the elixir does. Anything she can't pick up is red-outlined, including weapons once her weapon slot is filled. A wielded weapon can't be pickpocketed off her. She wears no metal armour, so Heat Metal doesn't work. Command:Drop doesn't work on an ally. Knowing I can't swap them out, what is the best (simple, because proficiency) weapon for her? The Harper Sacredstriker summons a Spiritual Weapon, meaning an extra ally, once per day. The Staff of Arcane Blessing lets her buff the party once a day, but is better for a cleric or paladin who can cast Bless at will. The Staff of the Ram has a chance to stun with every hit, but is weak, bugged, needs a fix to make all of its damage work, and I'd rather have Jaheira combine it with Belm. Lesser options are one of Karlach's two Lightning Jabbers, Xyanyde, the Shining Staver-of-Skulls, the Watcher's Guide (can inflict True Strike) or the +3 infernal spears once we clear out Wyrms Rock Fortress. I'd rather leave daggers and shortbows to Astarion, except for Dolor Amarus, of which I have a spare. If I really hated her, I would give her the Rat Bat or the Staff of a Mumbling Wizard. But I'll probably wait until the last battle and give her Boooal's Sickle.
Encouraged by my success with Mizora, I want to try another NPC whose enlistment might break future quests: the "handsome young man" (reason for quotation marks will be obvious once you see him) to which I first saw this technique applied in a Youtube vid by Proxy Gate Tactician. Reddit says other enlistables are Thisobald, Kar'niss and Viconia, the latter of whom I'd love to attach to Shadowheart. In the same vein, it's only right that Gortash should be enslaved by Karlach, who is no spellcaster, but a respec to druid will change that. The steps, cobbled together from Youtube and Reddit:
Karlach requests a reclass from Withers. We jump to Wyrm Rock, then to South Span of Wyrm's Crossing, where Karlach levels up at the counter of Stylin' Horst, maximizing Wisdom and packing his refreshed inventory into a bag after each level. When she's done, this bag holds, among other items, two Elixirs of Lightning Resistance and nine hyena ears. Then she borrows Jaheira's spell save DC gear, letting Jaheira carry the Resonance Stone. I notice an hourglass on Mizora's portrait; she didn't jump with us and is still at the other waypoint. I have to switch focus to Mizora and transfer her separately, as if she were ungrouped.
Back to Wyrm's Rock Fortress. The Audience Hall (throne room) is easy to find, but how do I get to the office on the top floor? There are two routes: via a series of ladders and platforms on the southwest battlement, or through the door to the right of the throne, in the north-west corner, which opens on a spiral staircase that directly transports us onto the trapped top floor battlements. Either route is overseen by Steel Watchers, who start combat if they spot us. Mizora can twincast, but only from her own spellbook, not the Scroll of Greater Invisibility Seven drops in front of her; the now invisible Halsin casts Pass Without Trace, and Seven twincasts Greater Invisibility on Karlach and Jaheira. Then, Seven drops an invisibility potion for Mizora to drink, drinks one himself and the whole party crouches. That's how they sneak through the northwest door in the throne room, then behind the Steel Watcher patrolling the trapped battlement, then straight through its sight cone, opening the door and filing into the antechamber to Gortash's office, unseen. Above them is the raised ladder to the belltower. In the office itself stands Gortash, a Steel Watcher and some Banites. We can't speak to him, as he told Seven not to return empty-handed. How to abduct him to a safe place? Try to cast Dominate Person on him - all his mental stats are very high - or just pick him up and start running, hoping we don't aggro the fort either way? What if even approaching him starts a cutscene? Damn, we should have done this while he was still in the throne room.
Two failed attempts: first, Karlach improvisedweapons him to the South Span waypoint, making us all visible. A cutscene starts in his office, where he goes hostile because we don't have Orin's stone, then we're back on the bridge, enemies threatening us from the fortress, Gortash attacking us. We've lost invisibility and his resistance is too high; besides, once he's in combat, I've gleaned from Reddit, he might not become an ally. Second, since we've invisibly snuck close to him, we make the attempt where he stands. Seven has 90% chance of polymorphing him and, due to Gortash's Legendary Resistance, still fails, initiating combat. Just for the heck of it, we let the fight start, and are wiped. Of note is that Mizora can't use actions or bonus actions, or even move, during combat - because the initiative row separated her from Jaheira? Or because she's programmed to avoid combat by teleporting to Avernus, possibly making her useless in a fight? If so, I'm glad she didn't get a weapon yet.
(It's because she was isolated in the initiative row. Else, damage just makes her disappear, then reappear somewhere in the initiative row in the next round.)
Reload to before Karlach's reclass and the nine hyena ears. The Baldur's Gate 3 PolyDom Instructional Video goes deeper into the polymorph/dominate trick. It confirms that the polydommed NPC becomes an ally the moment the dominator is dismissed; this is why casting Dominate Beast can't be done by the main character, who can't leave the party. Re-add the dominator, and the NPC's portrait is attached to the dominator's. Dismiss and re-add the dominator again, and the NPC's portrait will be attached to the main character's. Well, an interim extra step is needed: save and reload. If I dismiss Jaheira - which would normally unsummon any summons attached to her - and immediately add her again, Mizora will be attached to both Jaheira and Seven. So I dismiss Jaheira, save and reload, then re-add Jaheira. Now, Mizora is only attached to Seven.
Karlach is still in the party, which is fine, as instead we'll be knocking heads together on the path to Bhaal's temple. Good barbarian gloves await her there, if we time it right. Minthara and Shadowheart, who both have gear that makes it impossible to knock them into a chasm, replace the druids. Like Astarion, who has a "sneaking" and a "fighting" ensemble, Seven has "persuasion" accessories: Jannath's Hat, the Ring of Geniality, the Ring of Truthfulness and the thought-detecting amulet Uncovered Mysteries, and "combat" accessories: the Fistbreaker's Helm, the Coruscation Ring to inflict Radiant Orb, the Ring of Protection, and the Spineshudder Amulet to reverb. What Seven reverbs, Karlach can daze. After Orin's fight and a subsequent planned re-level for all, she might pass on her reverbing boots and gloves to him.
Seven doesn't need to "blood the skull", the door to the Bhaal's Temple gauntlet is sufficiently impressed that he killed the Murder Tribunal. The party adjourns to camp for some strategizing.
We want to turn a powerful enemy to stone by debuffing and overcoming saving throws. The gear: Seven gets the Hood of the Weave, the Amulet of the Devout and the Ring of Feywild Sparks for maximum spell save DC, but wears the Silver Pendant for now, and the Watersparkers for shenanigans later. The druids are exchanged for Shadowheart, putting the Light of Lathander aside for the Staff of Arcane Blessing, and Minthara, wearing the Gloves of Battlemage's Power but keeping the Gloves of Heroism in case she casts Inquisitor's Might (weapon attacks may Daze) which uses Channel Oath, and the Shield of the Undevout (advantage on causing Frightened, extra spell slot for smites), wielding the Blackguard's Sword (may cause Daze on smite-infused attack) and the Bow of the Banshee (may cause Frightened on hit), preparing Wrathful Smite (may cause Frightened, although the possibility scales off her low Wisdom) and ready to switch from the Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet (paralysis on critical hit) to the Spectator's Eyes (Ray of Fear or Wounding). Karlach wields Phalar Aluve for its debuffing Shriek. All three casters have a scroll of Bestow Curse, and one has scrolls of Stone to Flesh.
The plan: Karlach and Minthara read scrolls of See Invisible; Mizora, of necessity, takes the elixir. Seven casts Guidance on Shart, who casts Pass Without Trace to activate her Boots of Striding, drinks consumables to become and see invisible, and sneaks across the bridge, past the ambush, hopefully spotting Farslayer of Bhaal Ghislev aka the Power Word Kill dude (hereafter: PWKD), until she finds the Bhaal Temple waypoint. Everyone teleports to the waypoint. Elementals are summoned from scrolls, Karlach calls Scratch and Us. The party sneaks to within a safe distance of PWKD. In turn-based, Karlach casts Guidance on herself with the Silver Pendant, replacing it with the Sentient Amulet on her next turn. Seven does the same with the Silver Pendant and the Amulet of the Devout. Mizora twincasts Haste on Seven and Karlach. Shart casts Enhance Ability (Eagle's Splendour) on Seven. Potions of invisibility are thrown over all. Everyone is ungrouped, including summons. The party sneak closer, Mizora hanging back with a scroll of Flesh to Stone at her feet, just in case. Karlach jumps in front of PWKD and throws two speed potions after another at him to make him Lethargic (a trick I saw on Youtube). Minthara drinks an elixir of Battlemage's Power (hopefully it stacks with the gloves), and debuffs PWKD by either casting Bestow Curse, combining Wrathful Smite with a sword attack, or sniping with the Bow of the Banshee, whichever is more likely to succeed. Seven also drinks the elixir, casts Flesh to Stone, then replaces his main hand staff with the Spellsparkler. Next turn, he replaces the Amulet of the Devout with the Spineshudder Amulet before letting loose with Eldritch Blast. From there, we either enter the side entrance, where Karlach uses Phalar Aluve's Shriek to reverb the shooters in the building and/or explodes the barrel behind them, or jump on the roof where Stranger Luke is.
The reality: Shart failed every perception roll of the ambush, to the point that Seven gave Mint and Karlach scrolls of invisibility and cast Guidance on Karlach instead, to send them after her; then, after crossing the bridge, Shart belatedly spotted Manglin' Abby. Karlach perceived the Night Blades and Strangler Luke, then reverbed Manglin' Abby in passing with her Bhaalist Armour and Boots of Echomalefaction combo, but remained undetected. She and Mint followed Shart past the talking statues to help discover the mines along the way, and jump over them. Found the waypoint! Party unites, starts sneaking back. Summons thematically appropriate elementals: Fire for Karlach, Air for Seven, Water for Shart, Earth for Mint. Karlach should have highest initiative, so her elemental can set enemies on fire after which Shart's can freeze them, making them Brittle, ie. vulnerable to Thunder damage. (Note: despite what I thought, a summon's initiative does not depend on its caster.) We're in the room behind Manglin' Abby now. Mizora twincasts Haste. Used up almost all invis potions tossing and not quite splashing everyone, but at the end, only the hulking earth elemental is visible. It hangs back out of sight.
The party sneaks up to PWKD, while the three invisible elementals enter the side entrance and climb the stairs towards the roof where Karlach's new gloves await. Oops, forgot Shart's enhancing cast. Karlach throws two speed potions, not near but at PWKD, removing two of his Unstoppable stacks and giving him two (from Aura of Murder and Lethargic) stacks of Reverberation; he is now incapacitated. The combat queue shows only him and Karlach, Abby is not alerted. Oops, forgot to put non-combatants in turn-based; their invisibility ran out, which alerted the adds. Reload.
Start from where party and summons hide behind Manglin' Abby. Shart casts Enhance Ability, Mizora twincasts Haste, get everyone invisible including the earth elemental. Karlach, Seven and Mizora sneak towards PWKD, all others including Minthara file in through the side entrance and up the stairs towards the roof to find Strangler Luke, possessor of the Bonespike Gloves; Seven will see PWKD turned to stone or someone will grab Luke's gloves, whichever comes first, then PWKD can die and take his adds with him.
Karlach throws two speed potions on PWKD. Click on first elemental to return others to turn-based. Fire elemental pops onto roof with Strangler Luke and Night Blades Hervyl, Zeironymus, and Corniche, and multi-attacks Luke rather than blasting the lot of them (they're not clumped closely enough to fit in the AoE). Enemy is Surprised. Click anyone not in combat and go back to turn-based, do this after every attack from now on. Water elemental joins fire elemental and blasts cone of ice, only hitting a Night Blade, but creating an ice surface. Minthara jumps on the roof and, wearing the Derivation Cloak (heals her if she poisons an enemy) and seeing Luke deflects missiles, casts Cloudkill over all four, who, if they run out of the cloud towards her, will slip on the ice; then mistysteps down, out of their line of sight. The cloud instantly kills two of the Night Blades, and alerts Invoker of Bhaal Ellice. The air elemental swipes at Luke and misses. Back to Karlach, who still has two attacks left: Seven succeeds in casting Stone to Flesh on the proned PWKD, and Karlach shoots at him twice (he is now Reeling as well as Reverbed and Prone) to remove his last stacks of Unstoppable, then Rages. End of first round; there are now two separate combats, one with PWKD and one centered on Luke. Shart and some summons are still hiding and in turn-based.
Luke uses his martial arts moves on the air elemental, then air, water and fire elementals beat him within an inch of his life. Shart tosses a flight potion between herself and Minthara, so the latter can fly up to Luke and finish him with a radiant/necrotic Divine Smite, grab his gloves and send them to Karlach. Mint uses her second attack to shoot at Ellice, making him Frightened, and ends concentration on Cloudkill so Shart can fly up and loot the Night Blades (crossbows, arrows of roaring thunder) before they despawn. PWKD can die now! In stage 2 of being stoned, he announces, still prone, that the ritual has begun. Karlach wallops him almost to death. The earth elemental, still on the ground floor of the building, enters the room with dagger-throwing Night Blades Maireadh, Comina and Flange, and seismic-strikes them, also aggroing Manglin' Abby. There are now three separate combats.
Karlach kills PWKD, ending that combat; Seven is quickly put in turn-based to stop his Haste running out. Having actions left, Karlach throws a smokepowder bomb on Abby, then kills her by flinging Nyrulna twice, thereby unwielding Phalar Aluve, which she didn't get to use. Dimension Door can't be twincast, so Mizora dimension-doors only Seven down to the ground floor doorway - he re-enters combat - while Karlach uses Nyrulna's inbuilt Feather Fall to safely jump down. Us and Scratch have stayed out of combat all this time.
Killing PWKD causes the four enemies on the roof to despawn, and undetected enemies to never appear, but aggro'd enemies are still fighting, and their corpses remain. Ellice, rooted in place, casts Cloud of Murderous Daggers on Mint, who simply flies out of them and to his side, where she and the elementals beat him to death. He carries the Undercity Ruins Chasm Door Key, which opens the same door as the Silver Key found behind that door. The earth elemental is blocking the doorway to which the remaining three Night Blades have flocked; Seven casts Hunger of Hadar over them, then Ice Knife at one, which causes another, nearby, to slip and fall. The earth elemental wallops the fallen one. Minthara, having flown all the way down the stairs, shoots two arrows, killing the prone one and crit-hitting the second, which allows her Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet to paralyse him. He is close enough to the last one standing that the fire elemental can cast Erupting Cinder on both. The air elemental braves Hunger of Hadar to pop up beside the burning survivor and kill him. End of combat, looting time.
Seven hasn't exchanged any Spell Save DC-increasing gear yet; Minthara swaps out her used-up Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet for the Spectator's Eyes, and the Battlemage gloves for the Heroism ones. I thought of using Minsc and Jaheira for Orin's fight, but will probably stick with the current team.
Exploring the area before the temple proper leads us down a path towards scurrying rats with glowing blue foreheads. I want to loot everything, despite Empy's warning and the foreboding autosave, so, we discover the Morphic Pool Dock waypoint and the rats attack us. These critters have both an Infectious Bite and a retaliatory reaction that causes Confusion. The reaction has an Intelligence save, so of course Shart and the elementals fail it, but fear not, Shart had cast Sanctuary on the surrounded Seven before unleashing a Scroll of Ice Storm on the main body of rats. Seven wants to dimension-door Shart or Minty, but is prevented by their gear that makes them immovable. Argh. Instead, Mizora twincasts Haste on Minthara and Seven, who casts Globe of Invulnerability over Shart, Minthara, himself and several rats, just far away that Mizora can't duck under it too, damn. We just need to wait out Shart's madness and then escape. Karlach is the furthest away, but can jump into the globe. She Nyrulna'd the nearest rats without becoming confused, and is now awaiting her turn. Seven throws a Haste potion on her, just in case. The earth elemental positions itself in front of a confused fire elemental to protect Us and Scratch, who will be high-tailing it out of the combat zone, but the fire elemental skips its turn. The rats under the globe bite, but can't hurt us. The second round begins; newly arrived rats dash and slip on the Ice Storm surface. Karlach jumps to Seven and starts tossing rats out of the globe. Hey, Shart succeeded in a save against Confusion! Unconfused, she dimension-doors the still Sanctuaried Seven out of the globe and runs as far away as she can. The rat bites did do something: there is "unstable blood" under the globe, and Seven is Infected. Good thing we're not actually going to fight these rats. Seven uses his double action to double-dash until suddenly, he is out of combat. Back to the fight: the Globe of Invulnerability has gone. Minthara throws Alchemist's Fire on the unstable blood to destroy the nearest rats, setting herself on fire and becoming Confused. Mizora can't dimension-door her, so just poofs away with Karlach instead. The earth elemental is the second one to escape combat. One by one, the party follows, shaking off their Confusion status after just a few turns, until the victory soundbyte plays, because we bravely turned our tails and fled.
Gosh, that was exciting. You may berate me now, Empy. Nothing? OK. Let's check out this wide bridge. Hot-foot, hot-foot, place is trapped! How do we know? Because Scratch, in his eagerness to point out a trap, activated it. A sanguine vent just blorped out a pool of unstable blood. Karlach sets it off with a fire arrow, Mint and Shart toss water on it. Unnecessary; the blood disappears once Seven skillfully disarms the vents. Seven is not so lucky in disarming the landmines under Orin's tastefully arranged corpses, but if one goes off, the others are "disarmed" by going off too, for the low, low price of a chunk of HP. Oh hello there, head of Dribbles, you will be picked up by Minthara, because her comment is delectable.
I just noticed that Seven can only Counterspell using his meagre two warlock spell slots. Officially at least, because spellcasting uses up his light blue (standard) spell slots before touching the hot pink (warlock) ones. Short rest at camp, then we (crawl around the Temple of Bhaal looting and) face Orin. Bhaal's murderers are good at what they do; Scratch leaves us, and I'm glad that Mizora has Zariel's protection. To heal after each entrance fight (most of which are optional, but I hate Bhaalists), the party passes around the Periapt of Wound Closure to wear before drinking a health potion.
The party creeps around the circumference of the temple, conveniently out of sight, Seven trying a Scroll of Expeditious Retreat (Dash as bonus action) for the first time ever, because I'm sick and tired of him lagging behind. The Bhaalists in Orin's bedroom, where the earth elemental uses Seismic Strike to make a disappearing cultist visible again, are also an optional kill. I'm a bit sad about Grimlark, but that's the life he chose. After a short rest, the party, especially the very useful Mizora, restores spell slots using elixirs, or, in Seven's case, accumulated sorcery points. Ah yes, Mizora. Haste, Counterspell, Dimension Door, Chromatic Orb, and Disintegrate for emergencies; what's not to love. I used to hate that she hangs around camp, but polydomming has made me very fond of her.
I've beaten Orin before, but that was on Explorer difficulty. On Tactician, she has a whole 12 stacks of Unstoppable, and is resistant to spells that disable her, like Otto's Irresistable Dance. Tips I've gleaned from the internet:
From all these tips and tricks, the following plan has coalesced: Mint wears Flawed Helldusk Gloves and Amulet of Bhaal, Shart wields Spear of Night for a free Moonbeam, Seven equips Knock Knuckle Gloves, Nightwalkers, Fistbreaker Helm, Spellsparkler, and Spineshudder Amulet. Re-summon Scratch. Shart casts Heroes' Feast, Shart and Seven drink Elixir of Vigilance. In turn-based, everyone, except Seven, Karlach and Mizora who hide in Orin's room, sneaks back all the way round and jumps on the ledge. The three below use invis potions; Seven and Karlach sneak around dropping water bottles everywhere, then retreat out of sight. Mizora twincasts Haste on Seven and Karlach. Shart casts Sanctuary on herself, then uses an Arrow of Transposition to pop down to the altar; dialogue starts; switch to Seven, who, in turn-based, casts Knock on altar; Lae, freed, jumps on ledge; dialogue ends, combat starts, Shart teleports to the ledge; Karlach makes Slayer-Orin Lethargic and Reverberated with two speed potions, bodyslams two casters, jumps to ledge; Seven quaffs Bloodlust and casts Chain Lightning at bottles/cultists, then mistysteps to ledge; Lae quaffs Bloodlust, shoots Arrows of Many Targets; Mint quaffs Bloodlust, casts Ice Storm, then Fireball for a water surface; Seven throws befuddling spore bomb on water surface, electrifying it. Elementals attack outliers, Mizora hopefully counterspells. Next round, cultists should be dead; Mint puts on Psychic Spark, Seven upcasts Magic Missile, and everyone fires at or whales on Orin.
This is not how it went down.
Changing the selection in Shart's spellbook to include Insect Plague, I notice Dimension Door and Call Familiar are subclass spells; maybe Trickery Domain isn't as useless as I thought. A raven is added to the party. The Circumferential Great Sneak towards the ledge begins. Seven still has to Speak with Dead to Helena. This ends turn-based. Fortunately, everyone except Mizora being ungrouped, the other party members are still where I left them. The Great Sneak continues. Save. Karlach sneaks out, but as soon as she drops a water bottle, she's visible and the cutscene starts. I can switch to Seven and put him in turn-based, but he automatically reverts to real-time. Okay then, reload, no bottle-dropping, no Bloodlust elixirs, just joining the Great Sneak; Karlach, Mizora and Seven invisibly walk past Orin, jumping, flying and misty-stepping to the ledge. It has a low point, from where remote-casting Knock should be doable. Alas, what a waste of Misty Step; the ledge is too far away for Seven to safely unlock Lae's chains. He should have stayed invisible on the edge of the platform. Shart throws an invis potion on Us, who can't make the jump, and stays in hiding near one of the staircases.
With all but one of the party on the ledge, there are four things I want to test. First, if Shart casts Sanctuary on self, then double-blesses three party members using the Staff of Arcane Blessing, then unwields it for Selune's Spear of Night on the next turn, does their (Mystra's) Blessing disappear? Second, does this end her Sanctuary? Third, does casting Sanctuary on someone else end her Sanctuary? Fourth, does dropping a Moonbeam on an enemy really not end Sanctuary or start a fight? The answers are no, no, no, and let's have Seven swap his Melf's First Staff for that spear so he can try it, wouldn't want Shart to drop concentration on all those blessings. And no, it does not break Sanctuary, but it does start a fight. Reload.
Out of sheer perfectionism, I'm reloading an earlier save and repeating the Great Sneak. Would raising the dead end Sanctuary? Let's prepare that spell for Shart, just in case; she keeps Selune's spear this time, lending Mint her Staff of Arcane Blessing. This time, Seven returns Melf's First Staff to his pack and keeps the Caitiff Staff, which specifically restores a warlock spell slot, in his off hand. He drops an invis potion for Mizora and gives the Space Shunt boots to Karlach, so he can free Lae'Zel, and Karlach can carry her to safety, all under the mantle of twincast Greater Invisibility.
All party members are where they should be: on the ledge, except for Mizora, Karlach and Seven hunched invisibly out of sight, and poor Us left, visible, at the top of the stairs near the ledge. No Vigilance elixirs this time, they shouldn't be needed. Mint uses the Staff of Arcane Blessing on Shart, the air elemental and herself. Shart self-Sanctuaries and shoots herself to the altar with an Arrow of Transposition. I thought Seven could get to work while Orin was yapping, but no, I have to sit out the scene. Reload and see if hurrying through it with the Space bar works better. Orin transforms, gets first turn and makes a beeline for poor Us. I quickly change to turn-based for Seven, Karlach and the now visible but still undetected Mizora, meaning, the cutscene took about 8 turns.
Seven remote-casts Knock, Lae stands up, Karlach runs to her and dimension-doors her to the ledge, now only Mizora is out of combat. Save. Due to not wearing his Gloves of Dexterity, Seven is at the end of the initiative row, so Shart dimension-doors him too. Mizora flies to the ledge, bam, in combat, but can still haste two characters. Who would be the best? Or someone should toss a haste spore bomb. Us, hovered over by a slavering Slayer, disengages and runs a small distance away. Save. Karlach throws two speed potions at Orin. This doesn't work, but chips off two unstoppables and more than two hit points, as well as hopefully using up Orin's first charge of Legendary Resistance: Incapacitation. Reload, Mint throws Haste Spore Grenade at party instead, and let's see how many hit points Nyrulna could knock off: the answer is 41 HP and 6 Unstoppable stacks; Orin is Dazed. Now Mint will dip her bow in drow poison and fire an Arrow of Ilmater, a hopefully cheaper way to wear down Orin's Legendary Resistance. Incredible: Orin gets 1 piercing damage, 1 fire damage, 1 psychic damage and 1 necrotic damage, and is Frightened and Asleep. Thank you Flawed Helldusk Gloves, Strange Conduit Ring and Bow of the Banshee. Four Unstoppables left: do your thing, hasted multi-attacking air elemental. Four crit hits, that remove only one Unstoppable, and Orin is awake again. Boo. Reload and now let Lae'Zel take pot shots, using up her Action Surge, until all Unstoppables are gone. Minthara, who has two shots left, sends Orin back to sleep with a fire arrow. Hasted Fire, Water and Air elementals knock hit points off, leaving an ice surface, then take position around Us. Quothe gets a lucky Rend Vision in; Orin is now Frightened, Blinded, and probably wants to curl up in a little ball. Minthara shoots her last: a lightning arrow, and Orin sleeps again. Save, because Mizora has two chances at Disintegrate, and she best not fail. One enhanced cast later: kaboom, Orin is no more! Mizora and Shart both have one action left, Seven and the earth elemental await their turn, and eight very angry Bhaalists would like a word with us.
Using a dropped scroll, Mizora catches three cultists in an Ice Storm. Shart's spear-Moonbeam is underwhelming, because she can't upcast it to do more damage, but it can hit at the beginning AND end of a turn. She heals the earth elemental to give it Blade Ward. The cultist whose turn it is, reaps Counterspell and Psionic Backlash for his trouble, and slips on the ice, almost dead. Oh shoot, with all these reloads, I forgot to equip Seven's Spellsparkler. Waste one action on that, then Seven combines Distant Spell with Ice Storm for lightning charges; the affected cultists' Radiant Orbs light up circles on the ice. The poor earth elemental positions itself between cultists, does two Seismic Strikes (ignores Sanctuary) and resigns itself to being beaten to pulp in the next round.
Six cultists start their turn before us. Most of them turn invisible. One wastes Stunning Gaze on Mizora, who just goes "toodles". The party's initiative portraits are now a contiguous block, so the earth elemental, despite being last, is free to seismic-strike two cultists back into visibility. Nyrulna's AoE discovers a third. Seven lends a Sanguine Explosive for Karlach's Enraged Throw, uses Distant Spell with a Scroll of Chain Lightning, and finds that not only does Chain Lightning hit targets with Sanctuary, but its auxiliary bolts ignore invisibility. Another Chain Lightning, and Minthara isn't the only one relieved that we all survived.
How did this fluke happen? Shart's Sanctuary was essential, the Staff of Arcane Blessing clearly helped, and the haste spores were instrumental, but what really doomed Orin was brave little Us squatting at a reachable position, yet far enough from Orin that she wasted her first and only turn on a Dash, which brought her so close to the party that we could focus on her without her allies interfering.
Cleanup: we laboriously carry all Bhaalist corpses out of the red zone, in case Jaheira needs some for necromancy. Even after giving Elixirs of Cloud Giant Strength to everyone, and sending our heavy baggage to the camp hirelings for safekeeping, we walk so slowly that Seven strips down and uses Disrobing Blinkstep. The bodies near PWKD have finally disappeared. At camp, I check: some of Grimlark's verses are missing. Lae'Zel thanks me, Yenna is still waiting on "ingredients" and Halsin wants to know if Seven has spoken to Karlach yet. Sigh. Let's get this over with. Karlach doesn't want a polycule, but gives Seven the green light to date Halsin, even after he apologizes for bringing it up. Return to Halsin, planning to turn him down, but the dialogue just lets Seven ask when/how they'll get together. Seven apologetically returns to Karlach and shares with her what may be the tenderest kiss yet.
I enlist Minsc and Jaheira to find the missing Grimlark verses, then take Lae'Zel to Oskar Fevras for her very own portrait. Supper consists of 100% alcohol. Who cares if we're hungover tomorrow, it will be a leisure day. Because tomorrow, we shop!