Let's Read and also Play Baldur's Gate: Bhaal must be stopped!

[Khay]

This update is a litte longer than usual. It covers Chapter 21, as well as the first part of Chapter 22.

Spoiler: The game

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We've been loitering outside the Iron Throne building for a while now. No need to delay any further.


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On we go!


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The Iron Throne spent a lot of money on a fancy lobby, as well as a CGI intro to show it off.


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We're off to a promising start. Sarevok, huh? We've seen this name pop up in various letters. Let's see what he - and those acolytes of his - are up to.


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More merchants that refuse to buy or sell anything. This is becoming something of a pattern.


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There are guards inside, but they're... not exactly the cream of the crop. Also: Note the fancy logo mural on the floor. The Iron Throne has money to spare, it seems.


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Nothing left to see in the lobby. We go up to the second floor, where another guard hails us.


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As our interaction with that one merchant suggested, everyone is pretty afraid of Sarevok. As soon as we drop his name, Dra'tan decides to stop asking questions.


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He has some interesting things to say about Sarevok's guests, too.


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The missions involving the Seven Suns and the Merchants' Consortium are optional, so it's technically possible to get to this point without knowing about the doppelgangers. That's why the journal entry doesn't immediately point to them, I think. Knowing what we know it's pretty obvious the Iron Throne is killing people to replace them with doppelgangers. That doesn't bode well.

The second floor is empty otherwise. We go up the stairs, finding a dining hall of sorts.


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Nortuary here is a representative of the mainline Iron Throne. Is the local branch in the process of going rogue? Is this Sarevok staging a coup? Hmm. No matter what you say to him, he storms off in a huff.


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There is another important NPC on this level. Emissary Tar is in a rather foul mood, but I'm getting the impression this is normal for her.


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A representative of the Grand Dukes! The fifth floor is where Sarevok's "acolytes" are waiting, so... given what we learned from Dra'tan, she's probably in a fair bit of danger. Sadly, while the game gives you the option to warn her, she won't listen.

Asking about the nature of her business gets you some bonus exposition, so we do that instead.


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Seems the doppelgangers have done enough damage to the Seven Suns and the Merchants' Consortium that they have surrendered their remaining assets to the "temporary" care of the Iron Throne, thus granting them a functional monopoly. Everyone working with the Throne seems to be treating the "war effort" as a done deal, although Baldur's Gate and Amn are still technically at peace. Worrying, that.


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There's a little kitchen attached to the dining hall, which is a nice touch.

Nothing more to see here, so we move on to the fourth level.


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This level of the building contains a rest area - bartender and all - as well as a library and some private rooms.


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Interestingly, the bartender seems to know about the bandit operation down south. How much of a secret is this supposed to be, anyway? Eltan suggested he has no hard evidence of the Iron Throne's involvement with the caravan raids.


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Destus Gurn here - who is either a xvart or a terribly unhealthy gnome - somehow manages to mistake us for Emissary Tar. He gives us a quick briefing on the negotiation procedure and drops some names for us to immediately forget.


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"Positive change and dynamism." It's like I'm actually at work.


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CHARNAME notes that the Iron Throne seems about to receive a monetary windfall. But is money the only thing they're after? CHARNAME expresses doubt, as this seems a little over the top for that.


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There are some more merchants in the back rooms, but they don't really have anything to say.


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They do confirm that the actual leadership - i. e. Reiltar - isn't here, but at... Candlekeep, of all places. Huh.


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That about does it for this part of the building. It's time to ascend to the top floor, and face Sarevok's acolytes. Destus suggested that they're negotiators, so they're probably just random civilians, right?


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Oh. No. No, this is going to be a mess.

No matter what you say here, Zhalimar and his accomplices turn hostile. (In fact, they're hostile to begin with, as you can see from the red circles around their feet.) The Emissary Tar standing next to Zhalimar turns out to be a doppelganger in disguise. We're too late - the real Emissary Tar is already dead.


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We use a few wands and scrolls to throw Fireballs their way, then hurry back downstairs so we don't get caught in the blast radius.

Zhalimar's group is a very difficult encounter - I'm pretty sure you're supposed to do a lot more sidequesting before you try to fight them. We're facing a full group of enemies of our level, and they have more casters than we do. Alai and Naaman are mages, Aasim and Divab are clerics and Cloudwulfe and Gardush are fighters. The magic users are very dangerous, and the fighters can do some damage too. We'll have to approach this one carefully.


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The fireballs should've softened up the group a little, so now it's time to fight them properly. As always, we open with a series of debuffs - mostly Horror and Slow.


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The clerics have access to Flame Strike, which is capable of killing one of our party members in one shot. Even the fighers. Ajantis made his saving throw, thankfully.

As you saw above, the two mages open combat by casting Shadow Door to turn themselves invisible. Since it's an Improved Invisibility effect, they can cast spells without becoming invisible again. We can't exactly ignore them until the invisibility runs out, so we'll have Jaheira cast an Invisibility Purge.


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Xan's Horror spells keep Zhalimar's group from coordinating their offense, and Jaheira manages to resolve her spell. Now we have a chance.


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We charge into the melee, trying to kill the mages while their meatshields are still under the effect of the Horror spells. Ajantis doesn't make it, but he takes one of the mages with him.


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We make short work of the second mage, then rush the cleric that made his saving throw.


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Without the magic users, it's just a matter of cleaning up. The fighters don't really stand a chance on their own. This was close!

At least they carry a lot of loot, including a Ring of Free Action, a Wand of Lightning, a Wand of the Heavens, a bunch of +1 and +2 weapons, spell scrolls, potions and a Bracers AC7. We take a moment to gather up the loot (and Ajantis' stuff.)


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Here's a little easter egg: There's an exit to the roof, where the intro sequence took place.


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Falling down five stories... yeah, that'll hurt. Also, this area counts as being outside, so you can rest here, which is nice.

Now that Zhalimar and his group are dead, we have the run of the building. You may have noticed that Zhalimar's group didn't actually include Thaldorn. He's somewhere on this level. He doesn't have much to say, but if you charm him, you can get a very nice exposition dump.

I'm one of the western divisional leaders of the Iron Throne. We are here at Candlekeep negotiating with the Knights of the Shield. We have been creating a misinformation campaign to blame the Zhentarim for all the troubles in the region. We are trying to create tensions between the governments of Baldur's Gate and that of Amn. With iron being the most important resource in a war, the Baldurian government will have to go to us in order to get any. We have disrupted all iron trade through the region using the Black Talon mercenaries and the Chill. The known iron mine in the region is at Nashkel, and we have effectively crippled that mine. We have our own mine operating in CLoakwood. When the Baldurian government comes to us for iron, we will be able to make exhorbirant trading demands, and thus become the preeminent trading power in this region. (StrRef:6072)

Journal entry:
When we charmed Thaldorn we learned a lot of information about the Iron Throne. They want to become the pre-eminent trading cartel along the Sword Coast. To do this, they have been using a misinformation campaign to raise tensions between the nations of Baldur's Gate and Amn. They have disrupted the flow of iron into Baldur's Gate by sabotaging the Nashkel mines, and using the Chill and Black Talons to cut off all trade along the Sword Coast. The only iron source in the Sword Coast will be the Iron Throne base in Cloakwood. With Baldur's Gate anticipating a war with Amn, they will be forced to go to the Iron Throne for the most precious of war time materials. When this occurs, the Iron Throne will be able to make any demands that they wish. (StrRef:6569)

We already knew all of that, but it's nice to get a summary.


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Exploring a little, we find desk with some important-looking papers on it.


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The first letter is adressed to Reiltar, concerning some kind of business deal. Tuth is another Forgotten Realms character. He's a representative of the Knights of the Shield, another shady mercantile group/secret society. Makes sense that the Iron Throne would have to come with some sort of arrangement with them - you really don't want to fight a three-front war against the Zhents, the Harpers and the Knights of the Shield.


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The second letter also goes to Reiltar, but it's a bit more personal - it's written by this Sarevok character, who adresses Reiltar as "father."

Also, it's about us! Sarevok was either overly confident about Zhalimar's ability to stop us, or he's outright lying to Reiltar. Interesting. Either way, if we want to track down Reiltar, it seems our next stop is Candlekeep.


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As soon as we exit the building, one of Scar's aides stops us. Scar wants to talk to us. Sure, we'll go to the Flaming Fist building right away.


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After a brief detour to get Ajantis raised, that is.


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Also, we heal up a little bit so we don't bleed all over the carpets.

Scar doesn't seem to be in, so we talk to Eltan instead.


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As before, being snippy to Eltan just gets you a nonstandard game over. Options 3 and 4 continue the plot. Option 5 lets you exit the conversation, in case you have unfinished business in Baldur's Gate. We still haven't hit the point of no return, though the game likes to make this look like one.


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Eltan instructs us to continue to Candlekeep and figure out what, exactly, the Iron Throne is up to.


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And thus concludes Chapter Six: With our journey coming full circle.

Spoiler: The book

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After last chapter's little cop drama, we are back with our heroes. Jaheira, Abdel and Jhasso are still locked up in that makeshift warehouse prison, but something is happening outside.

“Sounds like your friends are here,” Jhasso said, trying to peer through the little window in his cell.
“Or yours,” Jaheira offered. The sound of battle was unmistakable, though far off and muffled by at least one floor.

The three of them sit tight, anxiously listening as the sounds of fighting draw closer. Eventually, the door at the end of the hallway is opened, revealing a dead doppleganger and a Flaming Fist mercenary.

A young man wearing a blood- and sweat-stained tabard bearing the sign of the Flaming Fist stopped in front of Abdel’s cell. Blood dripped from a halberd that was easily heavier than the young soldier.
“Are you Jha-Jhasso?” the soldier asked breathlessly.
“He’s in the cell behind you, troop,” Abdel answered at the same time Jhasso called out, “Let me outta here, kid!”
The young soldier looked confused and frightened, “I have to get somebody,” he said.

Jaheira curses at the soldier and demands to be freed. The soldier (who is Julius) apologises, then leaves without unlocking the cells. The captives continue to listen as the sounds of battle fade away. Just as they start to wonder whether they've been forgotten, the soldier returns with backup.

“Here, Gondsman,” a steady, commanding voice said. Abdel could see a sturdy older man in shining, blood-spattered plate mail. His face was unfamiliar, but his accoutrements were unmistakable. This man was a grand duke, and his crest bore the sigil of the Flaming Fist. Could this be—?
“Grand Duke Eltan,” the young soldier who first found them said, confirming Abdel’s
suspicions, “I found the key, m’lord.”
“Very good, Julius,” Eltan answered. “When the priest is finished, let these people out.”
“Let us out now, for Gond’s sake,” Jhasso whined.
Abdel saw a stout man in saffron robes stop at the door of Jhasso’s cell and peer in. The priest went to each of the three doors in turn. Abdel met his gaze when the priest came to his door, but couldn’t make eye contact. The man’s eyes were strangely out of focus, like he was looking at a point somewhere in front of or behind Abdel.
“The men are human,” the priest said to Eltan, “and the woman is a half-elf.”
“Open them,” Eltan said, and in seconds the three of them were free.

Turns out Grand Duke Eltan did have a sort of Infiltration Protocol in place. The stout man in saffron robes will later be confirmed to be Thalamond Albaier himself, High Artificer of Gond and canonically a 17th-level Cleric. He's using a True Seeing spell to identify doppelgangers. The spell that shows up in the game doesn't actually do that, but the pen-and-paper version should be able to. Going for the High Priest right away makes sense from a mechnical perspective, as he's the least likely person to have been replaced by a shapeshifter. (The question of how you know that the priest you're asking isn't also a doppelganger will not be adressed.)

Julius apologises for the inconvenience. Eltan explains that there are doppelgangers about, and that Scar is dead. Abdel swears revenge, as he is wont to, and the group is escorted to Eltan's residence in the ducal palace to freshen up a little.

A sleepy butler showed them into the grand duke’s study, and Abdel knew no one there would spare the time to smell him. The air in the room was serious, like a general’s tent on the eve of battle.
“Abdel,” Eltan said motioning them into the richly-appointed room, “Jaheira, enter.”
Eltan was sitting at his desk with his arm resting on the wide mahogany surface. A thin man with wiry gray hair and strange glass disks in wire frames resting on his nose, was bent over the grand duke’s arm, carefully stitching a nasty cut. Eltan winced when the healer pulled the thread tight and cut off the end.
“You were wounded,” Abdel said unnecessarily.
“Aye,” Eltan said, smiling, “my two hundredth cut in battle. I should throw a party.”

Apparently, Eltan could get a True Seeing out of Thalamond but not a Cure Light Wounds. "Nobody ever uses healing magic" is another weird pattern with this book. Cure Something Wounds definitely exists because Gorion used a healing prayer in the first chapter, so I'm forced to assume Thalamond is doing this out of spite.

Eltan and Abdel talk about Scar for a while. We learn that Scar and Abdel were close, but not so close that Scar told Abdel his birth name. We also re-confirm that resurrection magic definitely exists in this setting, it just can't be used on Scar because reasons.

“This city is blessed with a number of fine temples,” Eltan said, “and cursed with a number more, I suppose. When word of Scar’s death came to me I had him brought to the High House of Wonders in hopes that my good friend Thalamond might be able to breathe life back into the old war dog’s lungs.”

Abdel had heard this was possible, but it was a power most priesthoods reserved for the most dire of circumstances. Jaheira looked at Abdel, and he saw she was impressed as much by the sort of friends Abdel attracted as by the scope of the situation they now found themselves in. “They couldn’t do it, I’m afraid,” Eltan said. “His soul had fled, or... well, whatever.”

"Whatever" is, in fact, the only reason we're getting. This, for the record, is probably the worst possible way to handle death in a universe where you can raise the dead.

Also: Abdel's reaction here contradicts Chapter Eleven. He hasn't "heard that this [is] possible" - he knows that it can be done, because he was planning to dig up Gorion's month-old corpse and drag it to Candlekeep.

Anyway, Scar isn't coming back, but the priests were able to get a Speak with Dead setup going. Scar's soul explained that he sent Abdel and Jaheira to investigate the weirdness going on with the Seven Suns leadership, which is how the Flaming Fist knew to raid the warehouse. Eltan asks just what the heck was going on with that, and Jaheira fills him in.

“The Iron Throne wants to start a war between your people and mine.”
“A war with Amn?” Eltan asked. “To what end?”
Jaheira shook her head and said, “I don’t know. That was what Scar sent us to that pier to find out.”
“My city is crawling with doppelgangers,” Eltan said, “we’re being pushed into war with Amn, our resources are being sabotaged, and no one knows why?”
Jaheira reddened, sensing Eltan’s mounting frustration.
“I know where the Iron Throne meets,” Eltan said[.] (...) “Here in the city[.]”

Note: Scar claimed he hadn't even heard of the Iron Throne before. Eltan is either very good and very fast at gathering information, or he didn't trust Scar, or Scar didn't trust Abdel. Who knows?

We never do learn "where the Iron Throne meets." We get another mid-chapter cut, and when we rejoin our party in the Iron Throne’s "subterranean lair," it has already been cleared out. Julius is thumbing through the loot.

“ ‘We will be monks again, for a time,’ “ Julius read from the dog-eared notebook. “ ‘Return to the meeting place under the pillars of the Wise God.’ “
(...)
“Candlekeep,” Abdel said quietly.

Eltan wonders why and how a "cabal of conspirators" would use Candlekeep as a meeting place, given that the place is not usually open to visitors. The notebook contains only the one entry, it seems, and doesn't provide anything in the way of explanation.

Julius speculates that it may be a taunt - perhaps the notebook was left behind deliberately, to let Eltan know that his would-be assassins are beyond the reach of the Flaming Fist.

“It’s possible,” Jaheira said. “We — the Harpers — have thought there’s one man behind this whole thing. A dwarf the Iron Throne had made a slave told us this man’s name. He’s a wealthy merchant from Sembia named Reiltar. I have reason to believe this man Reiltar is the— is a son of Bhaal.”

Abdel looked at her with eyes wide. There it was again, the name of this dead god of murder and the idea that he’d left behind sons. Maybe, Abdel thought, I should have pressed Jaheira for what else she knew. Jaheira looked at Abdel with a red, almost frightened face.

Yes, Abdel. Yes, you should have pressed for information. You could do that now, actually. How about doing that now?

No?

Alright then.

Eltan looked at Maerik, then at Jaheira, and said, “How could you know this?”
“There are others,” Jaheira said. “Other offspring of Bhaal. The Harpers have been watching some, have lost track of others. No one knows how many have survived.”
“And one of them wants to start a war with Amn?” Julius asked, forgetting his place.
“Murder,” Jaheira said, “on a grand scale.”
Abdel swallowed in a suddenly dry throat. Gooseflesh rippled across his arms and chest, and he felt his body shudder. Murder, Abdel thought while holding back a smile with great effort, on a grand scale.

Amazingly, Abdel still doesn't put the pieces together after observing his own reaction. But so it goes.

Chapter 21 ends at this point, but as I mentioned last week, we'll cover the first part of Chapter Twenty-Two as well, as the Baldur's Gate subplot is wrapping up.

Chapter Twenty-Two opens with a little cutaway. Team Evil is doing some relationship maintenance.

“Murder,” Tamoko said, “on a grand scale.”
Sarevok smiled at her — smiled that demon smile — but Tamoko did not step back. To her surprise, Sarevok seemed pleased. (...)
“This is not...” Tamoko paused, then sighed in frustration. She wasn’t reluctant to speak, but was still not completely fluent in the common tongue of Faerun. “It is not... acceptable. Acceptable.”

Tamoko and Sarevok argue for a while. Sarevok reminds her that she's a killer too. Tamoko insists that she is an assassin, not a common murderer, and that innocent men do not associate with men who might hire an assassin. She only killed corrupt men. Sarevok responds that she was doing so on orders of corrupt men, and that somehow wins him the argument.

Once we're done with that highly neccessary segment, we're ready for our post-mortem of the doppelganger subplot.

Tamoko turned at the sound of the opening door, and a doppelganger strode slowly, reluctantly into the room. Its huge, lifeless eyes darted around the chamber’s spartan furnishings[.]
(...)
“You are an idiot,” Sarevok said to the doppelganger, and the creature dropped instantly to its knees.
“Please, master,” it begged in a voice neither male or female, devoid of character or substance. “Spare me to serve you again. I will do anything... take on any form Your Majesty requires.”
“That soft old goat Eltan has priests—PRIESTS!” Sarevok exclaimed in a voice like the inside of a thunderclap.

The doppelganger cowers, and claims that they can still hide, even given the priests. Sarevok shouts that no, actually, that's not how that works.

“They search for us,” the creature said. “They search for us with their true sight. But they won’t—“
“Shhhhh...” Sarevok hissed lightly, holding a long finger in front of his lips. He smiled that evil wolf smile and stepped closer to the cowering creature. Tamoko saw a tear roll down the doppelganger’s smooth gray cheek.
“Of course they will, doppelganger, just as I knew they would. I was hoping they wouldn’t start so soon, though, and it is in that way that you have disappointed me.”
“Oh,” the doppelganger sobbed through quivering, hairline lips, “no—“
Sarevok turned and made eye contact with Tamoko for less than half a heartbeat, and the assassin skipped forward, swinging her sword high over her head.

The doppelganger transforms into a copy of Tamoko at the last possible moment, and parries the swing.

The resulting fight is... well, quite interesting, actually. It reads like something lifted from a martial arts novel. A martial arts novel written by a westerner with overly romantic ideas, yes, but still.

In less than a minute Tamoko knew the doppelganger was running through her own experiences in rapid chronological order. She felt the creature make the breakthrough she had spent an entire summer working up to with sensei Toroto in the Temple of Fist and Light.

She felt more, though.

This doppelganger was afraid of Sarevok — an easy assumption — but it was also afraid of birds — irrationally afraid. Tamoko smiled and whistled once, a robin’s call, and the thing opened itself, and Tamoko sliced at its throat. It had made it to the following autumn of her life, though, the season she spent walking backward, and it stepped out of danger and even made a bold attack that Tamoko only barely managed to put aside.

Tamoko has a lot more experience being Tamoko than the doppelganger does, though. Eventually, the doppelganger's reaction is just a fraction of a second too slow, and Tamoko takes its head off. Sarevok makes out with the surviving Tamoko, and the scene ends. At least their relationship is healthy, I suppose.

Spoiler: Comparison and commentary

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So, here's the promised review of the Baldur's Gate subplot. Let's contrast how these went, shall we?

CHARNAME works with Scar to uncover a plot aimed at subverting the Seven Suns trading coster. The party rescues Jhasso from the doppelgangers. At the behest of Duke Eltan, CHARNAME then investigates the Iron Throne, confirming that they're behind this subversion, and that they're targetting the Gate's political structure as well (in the form of Emissary Tar). There's no hard proof tying them to the iron poisonings or the bandit raids, however. The Iron Throne's leader, Reiltar, is currently in Candlekeep to negotiate a treaty with the Knights of the Shield, and Eltan sends CHARNAME after them.

Abdel works with Scar to uncover a plot aimed at subverting the Seven Suns trading coster. They confirm that doppelgangers are present, but are quickly caught and detained. The doppelgangers take advantage of this, copy Abdel and Jaheira, and kill Scar. They also try to assassinate Duke Eltan. Eltan is a better fighter than they expected, so the assassination fails. Eltan frees Abdel and Jaheira and takes them to the Iron Throne's headquarters. They discover that the Iron Throne (all of it?) is currently in Candlekeep for no particular reason. Eltan sends Abdel after them.

This is a good illustration of something I've previously complained about: Team Abdel just doesn't do anything. They mess up their quest almost immediately, thanks to a lack of preparation, but the plot twists to ensure everything still turns out alright for them. Abdel in particular always seems to charge blindly ahead, safe in the knowledge that he's the protagonist and will be bailed out by a plot contortion of some kind, if need be. Sure enough: An NPC shows up to bail them out, and presents a neatly-wrapped solution to the whole subplot besides. Eltan frees Team Abdel; Eltan figures out where the Iron Throne is hiding; Eltan sets up priest patrols to root out the remaining doppelgangers; Eltan is the one Sarevok curses.

I'm not saying you can't have an incompetent protagonist, or that the protagonist needs to do everything. In fact, in a novel, it's often good practice to have several viewpoint characters. But this is just frustrating to read about, you know? Particularly when you compare Abdel to CHARNAME, because CHARNAME actually gets to do stuff.

There are two more areas where the novel and the game contrast, which I think could be interesting to discuss - the nature of the Iron Throne, and the way the doppelganger subplot is handled.

First of all: The Iron Throne. In both cases, there's a conspiracy going on. In the game, the Iron Throne is a legitimate ore trading company from Sembia. The conspiracy is that the local branch is doing all sorts of shady stuff - manufacturing an iron crisis and increasing international tension to increase demand for iron, among other things. There's another conspiracy within that, as Sarevok is increasingly using the Iron Throne to further his own goals. In the novels, the Iron Throne is itself a conspiracy, keeping a low profile and employing only a small handful of people. I don't think I like the change. The stakes just feel lower in the novel, somehow, as there's no big and powerful organisation backing the villains. You'd think they'd be more secretive to balance that out, but no, not really.

Beyond that, the characters in the novel take a different approach to the whole doppelganger thing. In the games, everyone is... actually weirdly blasé about the doppelgangers. If you know shapeshifters are on the loose, that's your cue to employ extreme measures. "Oh, doppers, makes sense, now go do a sewer level" is not how you treat the revelation that your city's power structure is being subverted by shapeshifters. Sure, CHARNAME slaughtered their way through the Seven Suns, and later killed a fake Emissary Tar, but how certain are you that you got all the shapeshifters? Were they really all in the building at the same time? How certain are you really, Jhasso? How about you, Scar? What if this is a double bluff and the "Jhasso" in the basement was another fake, meant to be found?

This should be concentrated paranoia fuel for everyone in or near a position of power. The doppelgangers we see in the games are conveniently incompetent, but you shouldn't expect to be able to rely on that. Of course, as we'll learn when we return from Candlekeep, we didn't get all the doppelgangers, and bad things happen as a result.

As always, the problem isn't that this is a bad decision - real people make bad decisions all the time, and fictional people should be allowed the same. The problem I have with the game here is that the fictional people in the game really should know better, which means this is questionable writing.

(I also have no idea why the Merchants League mission and the Seven Suns mission both exist. They're functionally identical. In a sense, the Seven Suns mission is a demo version of the Merchants League mission, hitting all the same notes but being far shorter and less interesting. This is doubly strange because it's quite easy to miss the Merchants League quest - side with Seniyad and you'll never even know it exists. These two quests probably needed to be consolidated. but that's neither here nor there.)

The novel goes for a different approach entirely. Upon learning of the existence of shapeshifters, Duke Eltan immediately sets up priest patrols and starts validating the identities of people.

I like that approach in a vacuum, but... this doesn't really fit with the setting of the novel, actually. Remember that True Seeing is a fifth-level spell, alongside Raise Dead. You need to be a ninth-level Cleric to get one such spell slot. That's beyond the level cap for player characters in the base game. Even Thalamond, who is undoubtedly one of the more powerful individuals on the Sword Coast, would get about five castings of True Seeing.

There are ways to handwave this problem, of course - the High Hall of Wonder probably has a stash of spell scrolls and Gem of Seeing. The overall setup is still a huge break with previous chapters. Until now, magic has been exceedingly rare. We have met exactly one mage (Xzar), one druid (Jaheira) and up to one cleric or monk (if you count Gorion). Every other magic-user from the game was shifted to being a rogue or fighter of some sort, including Xan, Yeslick, Tranzig, Mulahey, Tamoko and others. After twenty chapters of this, chapter 21 suddenly starts flinging around magic solutions to long-running plot threads. To go from a decidedly low-magic setting to one where mobs of clerics are flinging fifth-level spells everywhere... well, it's quite a departure.

(Also, and I know this is kind of besides the point, but this is a logistical nightmare. Baldur's Gate is a huge sprawling city. You need at least one cleric with each patrol, as well a handful of guards to defend the cleric, and you need to validate the identity of the clerics first. It shouldn't be possible for Eltan to set up a city-covering patrol network overnight. I don't know about you, but to me, this makes Sarevok's reaction look silly. This could be an in-universe mistake on Sarevok's part, though, as he never allows the doppelganger explain itself.)

In sum, I don't think this divergence quite works. It could, perhaps, had Athans actually written the Forgotten Realms as the high magic setting its supposed to be, and if the overall tone of the work was closer to Order of the Stick than to Conan the Barbarian. But so far it's been a Conan book, and thus the sudden introduction of widespread magic just doesn't work.

Whew! That one went on for a while. To balance things out, next week's update is going to be a little shorter.

[Kish]

No matter what you say to him, he storms off in a huff.

Actually, if you tell him Rieltar's on the upper floor, he'll go off quite happily, saying "Finally, a straight answer!" (And probably get killed by Sarevok's acolytes, but you never see him again anyway.)

There are some more merchants in the back rooms, but they don't really have anything to say.

They're a little more forthcoming if you threaten them, but the knowledge they have is limited.

[Keltest]

As far as the dopplegangers go, these things are pretty rare. Getting as many of them as he did is already an incredible feat for Sarevok. There is absolutely no way for there to be an actual army's worth of dopplegangers in Baldur's Gate. Even just replacing the Flaming Fist would stretch their numbers well beyond their limits. A doppleganger might be hiding as joe citizen, but they don't breed very fast and they can only be in one place at a time. kill 90% of them and you solve the crisis, more or less.

True, in the game you fight a few more of them afterwards, but

Spoiler: Das Plot

Show

Sarevok's subversion of the government is reliant on misinforming the remaining grand dukes, not replacing them outright (at least at first).

He has, quite frankly, moved beyond the stage in his plan where he needs the dopplegangers.

[Wardog]

A young man wearing a blood- and sweat-stained tabard bearing the sign of the Flaming Fist stopped in front of Abdel’s cell. Blood dripped from a halberd that was easily heavier than the young soldier.

Has the iron crisis forced the Flaming Fist to start making weapons out of lead? Or has a manpower shortage forced them to recruit starving waifs (or halflings)?

[Cazero]

Wait. A random doppelganger gains decades of experience and training pretty much instantly upon shifting into Tamoko? How does that works?

[Keltest]

Wait. A random doppelganger gains decades of experience and training pretty much instantly upon shifting into Tamoko? How does that works?

Dopplegangers are pseudo-telepathic. They can read the minds of their victims to help better imitate them, but it isn't perfect.

[Spore]

Dopplegangers are pseudo-telepathic. They can read the minds of their victims to help better imitate them, but it isn't perfect.

That's actually pretty cool. And my god the book does some weird things this chapter. Abdel and I share a common thing. we are both oblivious. But after THAT kind of plot twist even I would've understood Abdel is a Bhaal Spawn. The rest feels like a stitched together storyboard.

It feels like Athans has hung up post it notes with "Cleric of Gond", "Scar", "Imprisoned heroes in warehouse", "Doppelgangers" and "show Sarevok have sex near a murdered corpse". Genius!

[Cazero]

Dopplegangers are pseudo-telepathic. They can read the minds of their victims to help better imitate them, but it isn't perfect.

If they can read "one season of walking backwards to slightly improve the ability to dodge" from an actively hostile target in a split second and benefit from it that damn fast, surely they can read such trifle things as "accurate troops positioning" and "secret business plan to destroy the competition". They can rule the world without even actively impersonating anyone. Why are they wasting time with Sarevok?
Better yet, why didn't they read Sarevok mind, discovered how he intend to discard them as he stated himself in the chapter, betrayed him and remade his plot in a way that actualy benefit them?

[Keltest]

If they can read "one season of walking backwards to slightly improve the ability to dodge" from an actively hostile target in a split second and benefit from it that damn fast, surely they can read such trifle things as "accurate troops positioning" and "secret business plan to destroy the competition". They can rule the world without even actively impersonating anyone. Why are they wasting time with Sarevok?
Better yet, why didn't they read Sarevok mind, discovered how he intend to discard them as he stated himself in the chapter, betrayed him and remade his plot in a way that actualy benefit them?

I should have been more clear. The mind reading is a component of the imitation process. They can shapeshift without it, but if they want to actually replace you, they'll kidnap you and imprison you somewhere, and spend a couple days absorbing your memories and personality to better imitate you. It isn't a selective process, they just get giant chunks of your memory and person, and they cant filter out what they do or do not want. If theyre after something specific, they'll need to get the whole thing and hope you remember it accurately enough for their purposes.

[Cazero]

I should have been more clear. The mind reading is a component of the imitation process. They can shapeshift without it, but if they want to actually replace you, they'll kidnap you and imprison you somewhere, and spend a couple days absorbing your memories and personality to better imitate you. It isn't a selective process, they just get giant chunks of your memory and person, and they cant filter out what they do or do not want. If theyre after something specific, they'll need to get the whole thing and hope you remember it accurately enough for their purposes.

So? Get a hooded suit and hide in a crowd while Duke Eltan makes a speech. Look at him. Shift into him with no intention to ever pretend being him. Absorb all memories. Get out of the crowd to filter it out in a safe place. Congratulations, you made most of regular spying obsolete just by being a doppleganger.

[Syldar]

This may be a Pathfinder thing, but I always thought that if they tried getting more than surface thoughts then the mind-readee could tell there was something in their head. Hence, kidnapping and imprisoning.

[Keltest]

So? Get a hooded suit and hide in a crowd while Duke Eltan makes a speech. Look at him. Shift into him with no intention to ever pretend being him. Absorb all memories. Get out of the crowd to filter it out in a safe place. Congratulations, you made most of regular spying obsolete just by being a doppleganger.

And that's great if youre after early childhood memories or something, but that isn't going to get you anything useful in the immediate sense. The psychic connection requires very close proximity and time to get all of the fine details like, for example, where you pulled troops away from last week. It works on Tamoko because she was trained to her current skill as a youth rather than acquiring the skills across all of her life.

[mangosta71]

Little Easter egg for polyglots here: the doppelganger's name (in the game) is Espejo, which is Spanish for mirror. (I assume it's intentional.)

[Spore]

I think it's too vague. Also I feel it is mannerisms and muscle memory rather than memory. A changeling would know the right moves and have enough speed or strength to execute them. But he would not be able to piece together a coherent battle plan to duel an experienced sword fighter like Tamoko.

But at this point all and every discussion about abilities is DM fiat and the written rules have changed over the years, and aren't even coherent in the games, the P&P game or the books.

[danzibr]

So I haven't been following it too closely...

Does Khalid not notice Abdel is lusting after his wife? Or just not do anything?

Also, I found the author's description of Jaheira's boobs weird.

[Spore]

I think Khalid does but he is what modern slang would call a 'cuck'.

[Kish]

I don't think Novel-Khalid's a man who's pissed off Internet misogynists. (Computer-Game Khalid, yes.)

[mangosta71]

That's mostly because Internet misogynists as a rule don't read books.

But yes, he did notice and mentioned the developing relationship to Jaheira before he got unceremoniously cut from the cast.

[Khay]

That's mostly because Internet misogynists as a rule don't read books.

But yes, he did notice and mentioned the developing relationship to Jaheira before he got unceremoniously cut from the cast.

Yeah, Khalid knew that Jaheira was trying to have an affair with Abdel. Khalid is a serial cheater himself, though, so he doesn't get to claim the moral high ground. They never resolve their marital issues because Khalid gets slimed in the next chapter.

----

Today, we'll be covering what remains of Chapter 22. This is kind of a filler chapter - Team Abdel won't make it to Candlekeep 'til Chapter 23. It'll be nice to take a bit of a breather after last week's gigantic textwall.

Spoiler: The book

Show

Abdel and Jaheira are on their way to Candlekeep. Dusk is approaching, and they have made camp about two days away from the keep.

(Note that this puts them less than a day from Gorion's grave. If they visited to pay their respects, it's not mentioned.)

Our hero remembers that he has a plot coupon in his backpack, which hasn't been claimed yet: The evil book that Xan stole from the bandit camp. Abdel decides it's time to give it a read.

He couldn’t see Jaheira, but as long as he could hear her, he knew she was safe. He pulled out the book and sighed when he finally held it in both hands. The leather that made the book’s binding was human skin. Abdel didn’t know exactly when he came to realize that, but now it seemed so obvious he couldn’t imagine ever having been confused by it.

Worrying. Abdel thumbs through the book. The first page is blank; the second page just shows the same skull-and-drops logo that's on the cover. Abdel makes it no further than the third page, which presumably shows the "line drawing of a woman tied to a wooden ring" we heard about in Chapter Fourteen.

His mouth was dry, and he turned the next page. The line drawing there made his heart race, and he closed his eyes against the horror of it even as his skin tingled with the irrational excitement, even as—
“What’s that?” Jaheira asked, and Abdel jumped and a soft, startled sound escaped his open mouth. The book bobbled in his hands, but he grabbed at it, closing the cover with a loud crack.

Yes, "bobbled". I don't know either. Points for using one of these inherently funny words, but I'm pretty sure something like "shook" or "trembled" would've been a better choice.

Jaheira is wearing only a blanket, having just taken a bath in a nearby pond. She asks Abdel if he's alright. He visibly isn't.

Abdel looked down, and a tear dropped onto the ghastly cover of the book. (...) He set the book aside and took her in his arms.
“What’s happening to me?” he asked her, not really understanding the question himself.
“You are becoming Abdel,” she answered cryptically.

Yeah, that's... that's not particularly helpful, Jaheira.

Turns out this is just setup for a huge plot twist, though. For the first time in this book, and probably for the first time in his life, Abdel asks a follow-up question.

“It’s time for you to tell me, Jaheira,” he said, looking at her looking into the fire.
“You are not who you were born to be, Abdel,” she said sadly, but the smile she flashed at him was full of hope. “You can make your own way in this world, and your father, your brothers and sisters, don’t have to turn you off that path.”
“What do you know of my father?”
“What the Harpers have always known,” she said. “What the priests of Oghma and the paladins of Torm have always known. When I told Eltan that Reiltar is a son of Bhaal, I wasn’t sure... I wasn’t as sure of that as I am that... that you are a son of Bhaal.”

Dun dun dunn!

Abdel takes the revelation in stride, all in all. He's not entirely convinced, but his objections are relatively feeble.

“I am a sellsword, Jaheira, a hired thug. I guard caravans and warehouses and fat merchants. I have a good sword arm, and I’m taller than most, but I’m no god.”
(...)
“I enjoyed killing for killing’s sake, and I was good at it,” he told her. “In my line of work, that describes a lot of people. Even a god couldn’t have that many children. I have no... traits, no powers. If a god’s blood ran through my veins wouldn’t I be able to fly, or turn invisible or something?”
Jaheira chuckled, but there was no humor in the sound. “Maybe you have his eyes,” she said, “or his nose.”
“I can imagine he had a big nose,” Abdel joked.
“You had a human mother, Abdel,” she said softly, almost in a whisper.
“And she was a good woman,” he decided, based less on the facts at hand than on what he wanted to believe.
Jaheira looked at him in the dark for a long time, then said, “She must have been.”

And on that note, the chapter ends. I... actually kind of like the writing here. Abdel and Jaheira come across as very human in these sections - making weak jokes is a real coping mechanism. They're both very flat characters, but this helps make them feel just a little more real.

(I should note that CHARNAME's mother really wasn't a good person at all, but this wasn't established until Throne of Bhaal. It's understandable that Abdel would prefer to believe otherwise, too.)

Spoiler: The game

Show

Tonight, we dream of blood. Not of blood on a blade or the blood on our hands, but an ichor that runs as a torrent through the Realms. A flood. An ocean.


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Ominous.

Well, I'm sure it's nothing. Back to the task at hand. The game transports you to Candlekeep as soon as Eltan finishes talking - the chapter transition plays, and then you're waiting outside the walls of the keep. It's pretty clear what you're meant to do next.


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But the game doesn't technically force you to enter Candlekeep right away, so we'll go do other things first.

You may have noticed that I've mostly been ignoring the "game canon" party members. This was partially because they don't appear in the books, and partially because I wanted to try out some of the other NPCs first. But the "game canon" party members will feature prominently in the sequels, and I do want to do the sequels eventually, so...


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... say hi to Imoen. Hi, Imoen.


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Imoen invalidates most other thieves in the game. She has the full 18 DEX and comes with a proficiency point in Bows. Her only bad stat is STR, which honestly isn't that important. Yeah, she's not a good backstabber, but if you really want to do that whole thing, you can fix that weakness with the Gauntlets of Ogre Power.

Notably, Imoen also has 17 INT. Normally, these off-stats are sort of a waste, but 17 INT is enough to dual-class into a mage. This is a very common thing to do, as single-class thieves become less useful as the game goes on - common enough to be made canon by Baldur's Gate 2.


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Imoen is a very polarizing character. She gets a lot of character development in the sequels, but in the first game, she's all about being a saccharine sweet cheeky-little-sister archetype. The game also shoves her onto you. Some find Imoen grating. (I don't, personally, but I think that's because Aerie just broke me.)

Anyway, I quite like Imoen, and she tends to be my go-to mage/thief for most playthroughs. She'll replace Alora, as the two are basically the same character. She's level 1, as she did briefly join us in the first chapter, but she should catch up quickly.


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Another potential friend is waiting for us in Nashkel.


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It's Minsc! And Boo. Hello, Minsc and Boo. You'll be replacing Ajantis.

Minsc is one of the game's most popular characters, and Boo is sort of the inofficial mascot of the series. It's easy to see why - Minsc is just a fun character.


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Just look at the portrait! How can you not love these two? Minsc is rather straightforward - he swords things - but he's good at what he does. He has a unique Berserk skill, which often comes in handy for the spell immunities.


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He gets a lot of backstory, too. The games never really explain what Boo's deal is. There actually is such a thing as a giant space hamster in D&D proper, and miniature versions of the them are not unheard-of. On the other hand, it's probably more likely that Boo is just a regular hamster and that Minsc is... a bit overly attached to his animal companion. Minsc tends to defer to Boo when he needs to make a judgement call, and Boo allegedly reminds him of small details he'd otherwise forget, but... well, who knows. Notably, Minsc's wisdom is awful - we're talking "worse than Belkar Bitterleaf" here - but he still gets to cast spells starting in BG 2. That's probably a purely mechanical thing but... well, who knows.

Anyway! He's the bodyguard of a witch named Dynaheir, whom he appears to have misplaced. We'll help Minsc find her, sure.

We do some equipment reshuffling. The +2 two-handed word goes to Minsc. Khalid is a ranged fighter now, so the +2 longsword goes back to Abdel.

Minsc isn't the only one in Nashkel who expresses an interest in Dynaheir, though...


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This oddly-dressed mage is also looking for Dynaheir. (He has a habit of speaking asides out loud, which really needs voice acting to come across properly.) His goals are... rather less noble than Minsc's.


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He's also rather evasive about the whole thing, refusing to tell us why he's hunting for her. We'll agree to his request for now so we can keep an eye on him. (He'll probably give his agenda away at some point.)

Edwin Odesseiron will be replacing Xan. I have to say Xan impressed me. I used to think he was terrible because he loses access to most high-damage spells, but his save-or-suck debuffs really helped quite a lot.


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As for Edwin... Edwin is the best mage in the game. There's no real way around that.

For starters: He's a specialist mage, his restricted school is Divination (not too harmful) and he has the full 18 INT. He also carries with a special amulet that gives him bonus spell slots. That amulet in particular is why he's the best mage in the game even assuming a CHARNAME mage. His other stats are pretty terrible (CON aside), but when it comes to raw spellcasting power, you can't beat Edwin.


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He's also Lawful Evil, kind of a douchebag and a Red Wizard of Thay, so... use your own judgement here.

Anyway, we'll take him along for now. Minsc doesn't say have anything to say about that, but something tells me the truce won't last long after we find Dynaheir.


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We know from our new friends that she's being kept prisoner by gnolls living somewhere in the southwest.


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The fortress receives its own little intro, which is always nice to see on purely optional areas. These movies... did not age particularly well, as you can see.


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The only way into the fortress is guarded by two ogrillons, named Gnarl and Hairtooth. You can fight them, or you can pay them 100 gold for passage. Generally, you'll want to fight them so you can take Hairtooth's Gauntlets of Dexterity.


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The fortress itself is crawling with gnolls, as one would expect, plus the occasional group of xvarts. These pits are where they keep their prisoners and the corpses of former prisoners. Ew.


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There are a lot of gnolls here. They aren't particularly dangerous anymore - each gnoll dies in a single hit, and they can only deal deal scratch damage. Basically, they're kobolds, just not as portable or as lovable.


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About a million gnolls later, we find the pit where the gnolls are keeping Dynaheir. Fortunately, she's still alive.


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As soon as we talk to Dynaheir, Edwin starts screaming about murder. Dude, my dad is murder and even I think you're overdoing it.

At this point, you have three options. First, you can side with Edwin, causing Dynaheir and Minsc to turn hostile. Alternatively, you can side with Dynaheir:


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This causes Edwin to stomp off in a huff and has no other consequences.

You can take a third option and tell them to settle their own differences. This'll cause both of them to stomp off, but you do get some delicious flavour text out of it.


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This suggests the conflict is about the wychalarn and the red wizards in general, not about Dynaheir specifically. It's possible that Edwin is lying, though, or that he was lied to. You see, Dynaheir actually is here for a reason, which you can only learn from her Charm dialogue:


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It's possible that the Red Wizards sent Edwin for a similar reason but didn't tell him. Or maybe they did tell him and Edwin is just refusing to speak about his mission. Or something. Who knows?

Anyway, this is all very interesting, but ultimately we're going to side with Dynaheir on this one. If you have Minsc but not Edwin in your party, this conversation takes a different path:


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Dynaheir, as you've probably noticed, speakes in ye olde butcherde English. Edwin does not, although they're both from the same region. It's possible that Dynaheir has a stronger accent, or maybe it's just a personality quirk.


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"Yet another blow to the head." Minsc seems to suffer a lot of those. Remind me to get him a helmet.


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If you ask her, Dynaheir confirms that Minsc is on his "dejemma" and states that she is travelling for similar reasons.


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Her stats are on the good side of average - notably, she doesn't have any real weaknesses. DEX and CON both look pretty good. INT 17 is adequate, and her specialisation isn't that awkward either. Dynaheir is no Edwin, but she's also no Tiax.


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Her dialogue and biography hint at prophecies, but will not directly mention the Bhaalspawn unless you Charm her. Hmm.

Anyway, we're just about done with the fortress. Time to fight our way back out.


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The enemies on this map respawn quickly, and they do so in great numbers. I'm starting to remember why I always found the fortress annyoing.


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Below the fortress is a twisty maze of paths and caves. The area is full of rapidly-respawning xvarts, who are even weaker than gnolls, so... I'll just fight them off-screen. You're kinda... meant to do this sidquest much earlier in the game.


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Anyway, one of the caves has something interesting in it.


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Namely: A fancy book!


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We head over to the High Hedge Estate to visit our old friend Thalantyr. We need equipment and spell scrolls for Dynaheir, and he can probably identify that book for us.


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Aww yeah, it's an attribute manual. Opportunities to raise your ability stats are very hard to come by, so these tomes are super valuable. Back when there was only Baldur's Gate, using one of these involved a lot of deliberation, but nowadays, everyone just gives all of them to CHARNAME. Makes sense - that's the only stat increase that'll carry over to the sequels. +1 to CHA is kinda wasted on Abdel, but maybe it'll make him a little less boorish.

There are other attribute tomes, which we'll pick up later. Of note: Once we pick up the DEX one, CHARNAME should meet the prerequisites for dual-classing into a thief. I might end up doing that, since they get cool high-level abilities.


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We also pick up our sweet new armor from Taerom while we're in the area, and stock up on +1 and +2 projectiles. We now have three ranged fighters, gotta keep them armed.


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There. Now we're ready to head to Candlekeep.

... in the next update, that is, when Abdel and Jaheira also get there.

Spoiler: Comparison and commentary

Show

So... there's not much to compare here. The book covers Team Abdel's journey to Candlekeep (or rather, one stop along the way). That journey doesn't happen in the game, since it fast-travels you to Candlekeep as soon as the chapter starts. You can go away and do other things if you want - even backtrack to Baldur's Gate - but there's still no journey as such. The evil book doesn't exist in the game either, as Sarevok isn't stupid enough to keep these things lying around.

We could talk about the protagonist-is-a-Bhaalspawn issue instead - there are notable differences in how the game handles it vs. how the book handles it. This isn't quite the right time yet, though. We haven't seen Gorion's letter yet, which is the pivotal moment in the game. The book also features the letter, but it won't appear until chapter 24. I don't want to split up the discussion too much.

So, today, we'll take a small break from the literary analysis. I'm just going to take a moment and call attention to something that happened in Chapter Twelve. This will shortly become relevant in the light of Abdel's alleged struggle against the influence of Bhaal's essence:

“I can feel...” Abdel said quietly. He stopped to clear his throat and continued, “There are two voices to my thoughts, I think. One that wants to kill, that loves to kill, and another that wants... I don’t know what it wants, I hear it so infrequently. The voice that wants to kill also wants you.”

The "you" here is Jaheira. The "voice that loves to kill" - which Abdel claims he hasn't been listening to - was also the one that wanted Jaheira. Well, he got Jaheira. Keep that in mind.

[Spore]

Can we stop and talk about the fact that dating Abdel would raise huge GIGANTIC red flags in real life? Harper on a mission or not, someone who claims that the murderous voice in his head WANTS you should prompt Jaheira to at least get some backup from her order.

I am just glad my mental voices hum Tetris or some other earworm rather than tell me to kill or maim. Or rather my intellect keeping me from murdering my fellow coworkers because the one thing being less productive than a lazy coworker is a dead coworker. Ain't that right, Shawn?

[Keltest]

Can we stop and talk about the fact that dating Abdel would raise huge GIGANTIC red flags in real life? Harper on a mission or not, someone who claims that the murderous voice in his head WANTS you should prompt Jaheira to at least get some backup from her order.

I am just glad my mental voices hum Tetris or some other earworm rather than tell me to kill or maim. Or rather my intellect keeping me from murdering my fellow coworkers because the one thing being less productive than a lazy coworker is a dead coworker. Ain't that right, Shawn?

I dunno, all Jaheira would need to do is unbutton her shirt a bit and poor Abdel would be paralyzed with indecision, allowing her to kill him or, more likely in the book, flee shrieking into the woods.

[Spore]

I dunno, all Jaheira would need to do is unbutton her shirt a bit and poor Abdel would be paralyzed with indecision, allowing her to kill him or, more likely in the book, flee shrieking into the woods.

I empathize with Abdel then. Indecision is my middle name. Or Insecurity? I cannot decide

[Khay]

The author seems to be trying for the Twilight school of romance here. You know, the Tragic Monster is saved from his Inner Darkness by the Loving Devotion of a Pure and Innocent Maiden. Which, yes, is a list of relationship red flags that should make you run for the hills.

[Cazero]

Considering Jaheira is basicaly a (widowed) spy, the "Pure and Innocent" point is kinda blown.

[Spore]

The author seems to be trying for the Twilight school of romance here. You know, the Tragic Monster is saved from his Inner Darkness by the Loving Devotion of a Pure and Innocent Maiden. Which, yes, is a list of relationship red flags that should make you run for the hills.

Minsc and Khalid fit that so much more than Jaheira though :D I'd ship it. Trembling Khalid in Abdel's Arms. Minsc lecturing Abdel about the righteousness of his sword and to accept Boo as his spirit animal. But in all seriousness, we should start talking about the possibilities for Imoen's character for a second. Ignoring retconning her relationship to CHARNAME they could've made so much out of a whimsical happy-go-lucky gal that hides her inner turmoil and always tries to help her sibling through his or her dark times. Montaron could've shown her how she would've become if she gave in to her murderous tendencies. Scouting ahead for the group she could've envisioned her nocked arrow pierce the throat of the bandits.

She could've been the supportive family member that desperately needs help herself. Athans could've even kept Jaheira as an objective of desire and eventual plot point. But that is what you get when you cut (or ooze) down your own protagonist cast. A singular binary relationship and not much more. Ah the possibilities if Imoen were added earlier in development.

[Khay]

Considering Jaheira is basicaly a (widowed) spy, the "Pure and Innocent" point is kinda blown.

Jaheira's characterisation is all over the place, yeah. I frankly think she was assigned that role through process of elimination. Imoen doesn't exist, Dynaheir never joins the party (and also doesn't exist), Tamoko has a thing going with Sarevok... but the hero has to get the girl, any girl, and that only leaves Jaheira.

But in all seriousness, we should start talking about the possibilities for Imoen's character for a second. Ignoring retconning her relationship to CHARNAME they could've made so much out of a whimsical happy-go-lucky gal that hides her inner turmoil and always tries to help her sibling through his or her dark times.

Yeah, it really is a shame that Imoen doesn't exist in the first novel. Even though she's a last-second addition, and her Bhaalspawn status makes her a walking plothole, she really does add a lot. She's one of the more tolerable characters in the second novel, too.

---

Chapter 23 does something unusual. It covers Team Abdel's arrival at Candlekeep... multiple times. From different viewpoints. It's actually pretty interesting - this book doesn't usually indulge in stylistic experiments. Also, unusually rambling commentary section. I have no idea if what I'm trying to say makes sense, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the role of Candlekeep in the games.

Spoiler: The book

Show

First up is Abdel's perspective. He and Jaheira have been stopped outside the gates:

“Beuros, you squirmy little piece of—“ Abdel started to say but stopped when Jaheira put a hand on his arm.
“Good sir,” she said, glancing at Abdel who sighed explosively and turned away from the gate, “you obviously know my companion here, you know him to be a resident of this fair city and the son of one of your own. Please understand that we have urgent business here and—“
“Go away,” Beuros the gate guard said sternly.

Yeah, he's not exactly receiving the "prodigal son" welcoming.

Beuros is described as a little man with graying stubble, pimples and bad teeth. One we know we're supposed to dislike him, he slams the little window shut, leaving the travellers stranded outside. Abdel pouts for a while.

“I’ve never been refused entrance to Candlekeep,” he said. “Never in my life.”
“Gorion was alive then,” Jaheira said without really thinking. “He was in there to let you in.”
Abdel looked at her and forced a smile. She didn’t notice, being too busy examining the gates with a tactician’s eye.

The tactician's eye doesn't come up with much, beyond judging Candlekeep to be less of a city and more of a fortress. Thankfully, just as it seems our heroes have hit a dead end, Beuros appears to change his mind:

“Ah,” Beuros interrupted, “a book, or a scroll, or a tablet, or a... something with writing on it. Give me something of use to Candlekeep and you can come in.”
Now it was Abdel’s turn to furrow his brow in confusion and frustration. He regarded the little man coolly.
“Why this all of a sudden, Beuros? What’s going on in there?”
“The business of Candlekeep,” the guard answered haughtily. “The business of learnedness.”
Jaheira smiled and said, “That’s not even a word[.] (...) Give us a few minutes, Captain Steadfast[.]“

Yes, "learnedness" actually is a word. It may look weird, but it's real. You know, if you're trying to write a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, it helps if he's actually wrong.

Anyway, Beuros wants "something with writing on it." As it happens, Abdel owns exactly one such object - that book Xan stole from the bandits. It terrifies Abdel, but he also finds himself oddly reluctant to part with the tome.

“Abdel?” she asked. “You still have it, don’t you? The book that Xan found in the bandit camp, I mean.”
Abdel nodded, avoiding her eyes.
“Well then just give it to Lord Peephole here, and let’s get on with it. We’ve been on the road — again — for almost a tenday, and it’s possible that the people we’ve gone through all Nine Hells and more to try to stop are in there right now, laughing at us.”
Abdel let a long breath whistle out through his nose, then finally he looked up at Jaheira. He didn’t say anything, just slipped his pack off his back and fished inside it. He didn’t even glance at the book when he slid it out.

I have no idea where Jaheira got all that snark from all of a sudden, but I guess she's just done with this quest.

Beuros opens the peephole again, and judges the book to be acceptable. The gate has a second slot at waist height, for delivery of both mail and bribes. Abdel approaches the gate, but finds himself unable to let go.

Abdel couldn’t let go. It was like his fingers had locked, like his fist had gone into some death grip, and the book was his last hope for life — or was it his last hope for just the opposite?
“Abdel?” Jaheira asked, her voice now carrying an edge of fear at the sellsword’s sudden reluctance.
Abdel sighed once more and let go of the book, letting it drop through the slot. Beuros’s face disappeared from the peephole again, and he was gone for a long time.

Whew! That was needlessly difficult.

We then rewind, looking at the same scene from the viewpoint of Beuros:

“Beuros, you squirmy little piece of—“ Abdel started to say, but stopped when the strange woman put a hand on his arm.

I won't lie: I quite like what Athans does with this chapter. If overused, this would look like padding, but it's used only once and doesn't overstay its welcome.

We also get some rather fascinating backstory on Abdel as part of Beuros' inner monologue.

Beuros was one of many charged with defending the gates of Candlekeep, the place that had been his home for his entire life. He’d known Abdel for almost as long and never liked him. Abdel was the adopted son — foster son really — of Gorion, a priest and a scholar, one of Beuros’s favorite teachers. Beuros had been pushed around by the young Abdel, as had many of Beuros’s friends. (...) Beuros could believe almost anything about Abdel, up to and including the distasteful notion that the bully had somehow managed to trade the learned Gorion, a man worthy of respect and beyond reproach, for this mercenary trollop half-breed.

Now, it's possible that Beuros is exaggerating - he's described as "a bitter man, small in the body and small in the spirit" and someone who would be likely to exaggerate. But... you know what? I can see it. I'm not sure if Abdel quite has the malice required to be a bully, but he's definitely the sort of person who would thoughtlessly hurt others.

Outside the walls, the conversation turns to Gorion. This hits Beuros pretty hard.

“I’ve never been refused entrance to Candlekeep,” Beuros heard Abdel say through one of the many magical means at his disposal — magic that helped guard Candlekeep from an often hostile outside world. “Never in my life.”
“Gorion was alive then,” the half-elf woman said, and Beuros’s heart skipped a beat. “He was in there to let you in.”
So Gorion was dead. Beuros wanted to weep at the loss but held back the tears with a great sniff and cleared his throat. Beuros wondered if maybe it was true what was said about Abdel when he was a child—that Gorion had adopted him as some kind of changeling. Rumors abounded about the young Abdel, that he was some kind of demon spawn, a cambion or an alu-fiend, or the son of some evil wizard, maybe descended from a long line of corrupt Netherese archwizards. It was hard for Beuros and his friends to believe this since demonology was a part of their regular studies, and Abdel failed to exhibit any of the powers normally associated with the infernal, but still.

Demonology! Man, screw Abdel, I want to read about the Harry Potter stuff Beuros and his friends did as children. It's not like the rumors are wrong. Abdel really is "some kind of demon spawn," just, well, the spawn of an evil god, not a cambion. Abdel just hasn't manifested any powers yet, so... yeah, Beuros has a point.

Anyway, this appears to be the first bit of news about Gorion to arrive at Candlekeep. Khalid and Jaheira seemingly didn't see the need to inform their Harper colleagues. Beuros figures that Tethtoril probably needs to hear about this, and calls for the aging monk with a magic device. He needs to stall for time, though.

Abdel and the woman were still outside the gate, conversing quietly. Beuros opened the peephole.
“Give me a book,” he said, obviously startling the woman, who jumped. They looked up at the little window.
“Beuros—“ Abdel started to say.
“Ah,” Beuros interrupted, “a book, or a scroll, or a tablet, or a... something with writing on it. Give me something of use to Candlekeep, and you can come in.”
The sellsword furrowed his brow in confusion and frustration. Beuros wasn’t at all surprised that Abdel didn’t have any form of written record with him. It wouldn’t have surprised the man to hear that Abdel had forgotten how to read.

I like you, Beuros. Please stay - my job is much easier when you're around to snark at the narrative with me.

“Why this all of a sudden, Beuros? What’s going on in there?” the sellsword asked.
“The business of Candlekeep,” Beuros answered directly. “The business of learnedness.”
The woman smiled evilly and said, “That’s not even a word, you little—“
“A book!” Beuros insisted, insulted that this half-elf by-blow would question his learnedness.

Yes, I get it, author. You're very proud of this joke. But learnedness is a real word that's used in actual books, and Beuros is right to be offended. Was this book just... not edited at all? There are plenty of lovely non-words you could've used, here. I like "erudity." Why not "erudity?" This almost seems intentional, but if so, I have no idea what purpose this is meant to serve.

Anyway, Beuros listens to Abdel and Jaheira chat for a while. He's rather shocked when Abdel actually manages to produce a book:

What if Abdel managed to call his bluff? He heard the woman call his name, and brimming with apprehension, he opened the shutter once more.
“A book?” Beuros asked.
He saw then what Abdel was holding in his big, callused hand. It was a book all right, and the sight of it set Beuros’s heart racing. It was bound, no less, in human skin, and bore on it a symbol he hadn’t seen in a long time, a symbol crafted from a human skull.

This is interesting. At first, Abdel didn't realise the book was bound in human skin - but Beuros does, although Abdel actually got to hold the book in his hand, while Beuros is just looking at it from several feet away. The door guard also forms the impression that this is an evil book, and decides that it should probably be contained in Candlekeep.

“Slide it in there, Abdel,” Beuros said softly, not realizing he’d used Abdel’s name for the first time in years.
(...)
The sellsword sighed once more and let go of the book, letting it drop through the slot. Beuros climbed down and picked up the book. It was heavy, and the touch of the cover was at once ghastly and exhilarating.
“What have you got there, Beuros?” Tethtoril asked from behind him, making the guard gasp and spin to face him.

We then rewind, looking at the same scene from the viewpoint of Tethtoril:

“Beuros, you squirmy little piece of—“ Tethtoril heard shouting in the distance. The old monk interrupted his morning walk, turning to face

Alright, alright, this doesn't actually happen.

Instead, Tethtoril invites Abdel and Jaheira to his private chambers for a spot of tea.

The walk across Candlekeep’s meticulously landscaped bailey brought back such a flood of emotions, Abdel had all but shut down. Tethtoril’s reaction to the news of Gorion’s death made Abdel live through it again. Jaheira, sensing what this visit was already doing to Abdel, clutched at his arm. She seemed impatient, but Abdel didn’t think about why. All thoughts of the Iron Throne had fled his mind.

Oh, hey. I think it's been a few chapters since I complained about the whole show-don't-tell thing. It's nice to be offered such a prime opportunity to catch up. I'll be doing some of that in the commentary section below.

Tethtoril thanks Abdel for bringing that book to Candlekeep, explaining that the book is literally evil - being a copy of the unholy rites of Bhaal, Lord of Murder. Boy, it sure is convenient that this book was the only thing-with-letters-on-it the party was carrying.

Soon, the conversation turns to Gorion.

“Your father,” Tethtoril said quickly, obviously uncomfortable with what he was about to say, “left something in my care. He told me that if he ever met an... untimely... if he died before he’d had a chance to...” The monk held back a sob but couldn’t continue.

See, this is better. It's still overwrought - the "held back a sob" probably didn't need to be written out - but we actually get to see Tethtoril choke on his words. That's way more powerful than being told that Abdel.exe has crashed because of emotion buffer overflow.

Once he regains his composure, Tethtoril explains that Gorion left Abdel a pass stone and a letter. Abdel objects, saying that Gorion was carrying a scrap of parchment - that bit of prophecy we saw in Chapter Three.

“Impossible,” Tethtoril said. “I have the letter right here.”

I'll say this much: Athans often finds nice ending lines for his chapters.

Spoiler: The game

Show

Candlekeep looms large in our thoughts. In our dreams, too, we find ourselves going back to our old home... and going back in time.


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Hmm. I wonder how much of this really happened. The business with the crow is certainly symbolical, but it seems possible that Gorion really did have to look for a place that would take him and CHARNAME in. The argument between Gorion and Ulraunt seems like something that could really have happened. CHARNAME doesn't remember it, but then they seem to have been very young when this happened.

Most of the dreams have a really simple and straightforward meaning, but this one is a little more obscure. Why is the Bhaal essence showing us this, exactly? How much control does it even have over what we're seeing? So many questions.

(Oh, and we get Draw Upon Holy Might as our divine power, which is quite useful for a fighty type like Abdel.)

Right. As odd as this was, dreams are just dreams.


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It's time to return to Candlekeep for real.


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Candlekeep is not usually open to visitors, unless you can pay the Keeper of the Portal. No exceptions.


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Thankfully, we have that strange book Duke Eltan gave us. No other book will do - while you can always go back to the Candlekeep map, the Keeper will not accept any book other than the History of the Nether Scrolls.

Note that this, at last, is a point of no return. Once inside Candlekeep, you can't leave until... events have run their course.


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But we've only just arrived - we shouldn't be thinking about leaving yet. We have business in the library, but that can wait a little longer. First, let's check in with all of our old friends, see how they've been doing, swap some war stories!

We'll start with the courtyard, then visit the various points of interest in counterclockwise order.


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Heh. We're off to a good start. Never change, Phlydia. Frankly I'm surprised she managed to remember we had been gone for a while.

Next stop: The hospital.


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Let's see if that nice priest is in, we never thanked him properly for that healing potion.


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Oh, it's Fuller! Hi Fuller. Man, we've come a long way since we were transporting crossbow bolts for you.


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Heh. Sure, let's do that one, someday. Eltan is going to owe us a favour after this.

Every named character in Candlekeep has one of these mini-dialogues. Weirdly, the options are mutually exclusive. You only get to pick the first time you talk to them. After that, you just get a generic line from them.

Ultimately, what you choose doesn't really matter - you just get different bits of flavour text. The kobolds option makes Fuller laugh, and he awkwardly expresses his condolences for Gorion's death. The Iron Throne option has him urge you to be careful where you're pointing these accusations. That sort of thing.


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We meet another Watcher just outside - our gruff friend Hull. Apparently, Hull and Fuller did retrieve Gorion's body, and they looked around for CHARNAME, but CHARNAME had already long left at that point.


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Seems that the Iron Throne leadership really is visiting Candlekeep, though nobody knows the details. Hm. We probably should chat to Winthrop about this, yeah. It's not like there's any other place they could be staying. Thanks, Hull - let's grab a drink when your shift is over.


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Let's check out the bunkhouse while we're here. Parda is waiting inside, and he's, well...


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... he's pretty worried about... something. Some creeping nameless dread has gripped our old teacher.


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CHARNAME notes that Parda's intuition can generally be trusted. This is probably worth investigating.


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The barracks are... closed right now, I guess? Well, all the Watchers seem to be walking around outside, so they're probably just cleaning in there. Yes.


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At least the inn looks inviting. Candlekeep is a walled village with exactly one inn - if anything interesting is going on, the innkeeper will know about it. I bet Imoen would like to say hi to ol' Puffguts, too.


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Ahh, Winthrop. You and your practical jokes. Excuse me while I force a grin and rub my various scars. As before, these choices are mutually exclusive, and as before, I'm picking the one that yields delicious flavour text.


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Winthrop has a little background knowledge on the Iron Throne. The mainline Throne must also be using some pretty shady business tactics. Remember, the sort-of-rogue Sword Coast branch isn't involved with Cormyr. Interesting.


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Reevor here is still doing his drill sergeant act. The Candlekeep People's Revolutionary Front is coming for you, Reevor. Just as soon as we've dealt with those splitters in the People's Revolutionary Front of Candlekeep.


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The Inn is pretty empty otherwise. I guess everyone's in the library right now. We stop for a few drinks, so our friends can get a taste of Candlekeep hospitality, then resume exploring.

Oh hey, it's our farmer buddy, Dreppin! Let's see how Dreppin is doing.


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Turns out this dialogue has the line I thought I thought CHARNAME said to Firebead Elvenhair. This one:

As a random aside: I actually remembered the encounter with Elvenhair a bit differently, with him asking about how CHARNAME is adapting to life outside Candlekeep and CHARNAME answering that it's kind of disturbingly large and rather short on books.

So it does exist, I just got two NPCs confused. That's convenient, because this'll come up in the commentary section below.

Anyway, you can tell Dreppin about your adventures, but if you bring up the kobold stuff, he'll accuse you of making stuff up. He'll consider an offer to come along, but decline, stating that his place is in Candlekeep. I'll pick the "local pride" option for now.


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He's right - Candlekeep is a unique place. I wonder why the Iron Throne came here of all places. If you're looking for a neutral spot in the middle of nowhere, I guess Candlekeep is an obvious choice, but... still.

So I have thoughts about Dreppin.

Due to the restrictions of the engine, it's not really possible to tell how old a given NPC is supposed to be. There are only so many generic NPC sprites to go around, and almost all of them are vaguely middle aged, with the exception of the beggar. You can see this with Tenya and Phlydia - Tenya is supposed to be a teenager and Phlydia is supposed to be an old woman, but they look almost the same.

So why am I bringing this up? One thing that's striking about Candlekeep is that almost nobody is the same age as CHARNAME. Hull, Fuller, Gorion, Phlydia, Reevor, Tethtoril, Ulraunt, Winthrop, Firebead, the monks, the priests - most residents are, explicitly, older than CHARNAME. Much older, sometimes. Imoen is an exception, but she acted as more like a little sister to CHARNAME. Dreppin the stablehand seems to be the only person who could plausibly have been just a friend.

(This, mind you, is ignoring the fact that CHARNAME's age is kind of a plot hole if CHARNAME isn't human / didn't age at the speed of a human.)

... you know, there's something I wonder about...


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Heh. Never change, Phlydia, never change. (Actually, an 8th-level mage with a short attention span seems dangerous. Maybe change a little.)


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We're almost done with our tour. There's nothing to be seen at the Temple of Oghma or the warehouse, so this leaves just the Priest Quarters. Frankly, I don't know what Parda was going on about. Maybe he is just becoming a bit paranoid.


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Just a single priest inside, as well as...

...

These cats... are just sleeping, right?


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This doesn't sound good at all. I mean, yes, as a priest of Oghma, you probably do things like that, but... you probably wouldn't be quite this creepy about it? What's going on here, exactly?


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Oh. ... oh. Oh no no no-


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No... not this again. Seems Parda was right to be worried.

We take down the doppelganger, but the fact that it was here at all is highly worrying. CHARNAME takes a moment to write a few thousand words about their feelings on the situation.


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This is why I love the journal mechanic. CHARNAME is a blank slate for the player to project themselves on, to some extent. (The fact that everyone in the fandom refers to them as CHARNAME is kind of a hint.) But thanks to the journal, they still have a voice independent of the player. This would definitely be something of a childhood-ruining experience.


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I... genuinely have no idea how CHARNAME arrived at the conclusion that they were going to be framed for murdering the Iron Throne leadership. The doppelganger just shouted something about "the plan," not what that plan actually is. That's one hell of a leap.

Either way, it seems we'll have to cut our trip of Candlekeep short. As CHARNAME noted: Where there's one doppelganger, there are probably several. We need to get to the library now.


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We make it most of the way there before a stranger hails us. You know, normally, we'd blow him off - in our experience, this is how assassination attempts begin. But Cadderly here seems... different, somehow. (Also, he has voice acting.)


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Actually, we haven't met that many people who were close friends with Gorion. It seems that many knew of him, but few knew him. Elminster did, but Elminster is also not particularly helpful. This is a valuable opportunity to learn more about our late foster father.


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"Those who harp." This does confirm that Gorion was a Harper himself, not merely one who associated with Harpers. Hmm. Candlekeep is a strange place to live in, if your goal is to give your child a normal childhood.


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Trials to overcome... indeed. Farewell, Cadderly.


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What a strange encounter. I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad sign that the Harpers are keeping an eye on Candlekeep, but... well, they are.

(In case you're wondering, this is another cameo by a Forgotten Realms VIP. Most of the stranger encounters in the game are. It's interesting, right? These characters were such a big deal back in their day, but they've faded in popularity.)

Cadderly aside, the courtyard is empty, and the doors to the library are unlocked.


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Nothing left to do but enter the library, and hope we're ready to face what awaits us.

... in the next update, that is.

Spoiler: Comparison and commentary

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This is one of the more interesting chapters to compare to the game, I feel. There have been a lot of small divergences over the course of the book, and they start to add up to something. The book and the game cover a similar sequence of events, but the context is totally different. This is a 'big picture' thing, though, so we need to step back a little. This one is even more of a rambling text wall than my usual posts, so... reader beware.

Talking about my own experiences for a bit, and not pretending they are in any way universal: Candlekeep feels like home to me, and this part of the return trip is appropriately melancholic and bittersweet for me. However, I'm not sure how much of that is because of the-work-as-it-is and how much of that is because I played through the game so often.

Games, as a medium, are unique in that they're inherently built to be experienced repeatedly. In any individual playthrough, you don't actually spend very much time in Candlekeep. An hour, tops, if you do the full tutorial. Perhaps half that time if you just do the quests and loot the place clean. Five minutes if you just buy equipment and make a beeline for Gorion. Forty seconds during a speedrun. It's enough time to get to know the place through some self-directed exploration, if you want, but is it enough time to form an actual emotional attachement? Maybe not. But whenever you go back to the game - when you want to scratch that itch for some Infinity Engine gameplay, when you decide to finally try that class you never used - Candlekeep is right there. Candlekeep is always the first thing you see, with its absent-minded scholars, its hung-over guards, its books and Gorion, fretfully waiting for you on the library stairs. Nestled atop the cliffs that rise from the Sword Coast...

The city of Candlekeep casts a long shadow over the series. Consider the class-specific biographies - CHARNAME was very much shaped by the unique set of opportunities and obstacles Candlekeep provided. Whenever the games need a metaphor for the state of CHARNAME's soul, or a setting for a Battle in the Center of the Mind or whatever, they use the Candlekeep map in various states of disrepair. That's mostly in the later games in the series, though. When the novelisation was written, that hadn't happened yet. Candlekeep shows up in a few dreams in BG 1, but it's not as much of a constant presence.

So why am I bringing this up? In the book, Candlekeep is curiously absent. The action starts on a crossroads halfway between Candlekeep and the Friendly Arm Inn. Abdel wasn't shaped by Candlekeep nearly as much as CHARNAME was. He left at a young age, and - assuming Beuros is a trustworthy source - nobody there missed him while he was gone. That's a deliberate choice on part of the author. We're told that walking across Candlekeep's landscape "brings back a flood of memories," but without learning what these memories are, that's entirely worthless. The game doesn't have to tell you about a flood of memories, because you're presumably remembering yourself. The novel really needed to do something, anything, but it doesn't.

You really have to ask - why is the return to Candlekeep in the novel? Well, because it's in the game, obviously. But in the game, it actually serves a purpose. It illustrates - and quite effectively - how far CHARNAME has come. Candlekeep is tiny. You won't notice it as much during Chapter 1, because you have nothing to compare it to, but going back to Candlekeep right after visiting the dizzyingly large Baldur's Gate... well, it's quite a contrast. The shops no longer sell anything you'd be interested in; the concerns of the locals seem small and unimportant compared to the larger plot. It's what makes the return trip so bittersweet. You can visit, sure, but you can't really go back home. But perhaps that's alright. All of this is completely absent from the novel.

Oh, and Abdel is still a short-sighted, violent idiot who relies on luck and narrative fiat to survive. If Xan hadn't pocketed that book because it looked interesting, if Jaheira hadn't tactlessly brought up Gorion's death, if Beuros hadn't bailed Abdel out by demanding "something with writing on it"... the team would've done what, exactly?

I know it's popular to point at a bad piece of fiction and say "this specific thing is the work's downfall." I don't think it's a particularly useful mode of criticism. Few works have one clearly identifiable Dethroning Moment of Suck. If I had to pick one, my breaking point would be... well, it wouldn't be this chapter, it'd be the whole "purely female sound" thing. The return to Candlekeep would be somewhere in the top five, though.

Before this section meanders even further off-track, let's try to come to a conclusion. The whole... place sense... thing... I can get from the game is not something I can get from this book. Partially, that's because it's a different medium. Something is always lost in the translation. But it's compounded by the writing failures of this book. This is highly unfortunate, because it means the coming betrayal loses its impact.

Spoiler: Addendum

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I should note that opinions about Candlekeep are split. Mine is not universal. All the NPCs act hospitable, and assure you that you've lived there all your life, but... the player doesn't really get to see CHARNAME live their life. The tutorial tries, but it comes across as hollow to some. As does the dialogue on return - you could read the NPC reactions as awkwardly trying to brush you off. "You must be busy, let's have a beer later when you've hopefully forgotten about this."

That, too, kind of ruins the impact of the betrayal to come. But this post is long and incoherent enough as-is, and I couldn't fit this in anywhere else. We might be talking about that in a coming update.

[Spore]

Thanks. You actually showed me to love the game even more. The old NPCs are heart warming and seeing how emotionless the entry to Candlekeep is handled makes me slightly angry. Even if Abdel has moved away at the age of (what I presume is) 16 he lived his formative years between scholars, books and stories. I am even unsure how improbable it would be for a kid to be this uneducated growing up in a library fortress. How Abdel is characterised leads me to believe that he was a rebellious child, unwilling to learn and eager to hurt others.

But this part shows how important it would have been for the story arc to leave Abdel with SOME kind of attachment to Candlekeep. Also an excuse to make a mercenary book smart and actually let people hire him for more than stupid caravan escorts. I mean there are enough works of fiction that tell of gore in vicious detail. Why would medieval books be any different. Yes, they are hand written and probably too expensive to be carried by a wandering mercenary but this is Faerun after all. People tend to forget that.

Also the book calls Abdel out several times for being unable to read or be very smart while simultaneously bombarding us with dirt farmers and drunk murder victims. How widespread is literacy anyway? If you go by 3.5 rules and a bit of DM fiat you could say anyone with a negative Int mod can only speak his only tongue, and because common is a thing, even the most stupid guys are bilingual?

[Kish]

3.5 rules aren't ambiguous about literacy: even if you have an Intelligence of 3, unless you're a barbarian, you can read and write, and if you're a single-classed barbarian with an Intelligence of 18 you can't read or write unless you've spent skill points on doing so. Declaring that any Intelligence penalty=illiteracy would be a full-blown house rule, not just a bit of DM fiat.

(2ed, on the other hand, did link literacy to Intelligence.)

[Spore]

Seems my learnedness increased today.

[Keltest]

Given that Jaheira is a druid, I think that the joke was intended to be that she is a little bit dumb, or at least book dumb, which is consistent with the treatment of her character so far.

Jumping way back for a minute, what the heck is up with the implication that Jaheira is amnian? She's from Tethyr, well to the south of Amn, and I don't believe they are particularly friendly with, well, anyone, at the time of the game.