Imoen, Xzar and Montaron sat in the shade of the stone marker as I looked over our maps, before I came back to them to outline our next moves.
"First thing first, we clear the assassin at Friendly Arm Inn together," I said, then motioned for Imoen to put down her raised hand. "Yes, I know I didn't mention it before. I found out from the assassins back at Candlekeep that another one was waiting for me at the Friendly Arm Inn. Far from the last one, too. Back on point, I need to go to the Friendly Arm Inn in the future, so I'd like us to do it now while we have the numbers to do it safely."
"Won't we have the numbers in the future?" Imoen interjected while raising a hand. Shouldn't she wait for me to acknowledge her raised hand before asking?
"No, we won't. Wait for me to finish. By the way, we're postponing meeting our allies at Friendly Arm Inn until we've prepared adequately. More on that later."
There was also a critical item at the Friendly Arm Inn which I didn't want to miss. But I wasn't going to mention that.
"Then, we head to Beregost to collect information. We need money and resources, but most of all we need practical field experience. Solve the local problem which gives us the most money, and the field experience we gain will help ensure we are up to the task of investigating the iron crisis and worthy of Gorion's experienced long-time friends. Being on equal footing with these veterans changes the dynamic of our relationship to one where we have more autonomy."
Imoen certainly liked the sound of that. More freedom and less listening to elders was a definite plus in her book.
"From there, we split into two teams. Xzar and Montaron will be in charge of collecting information in Beregost and correspond with their superiors, keeping us informed. For our part, I and Imoen will be directly investigating the iron crisis and sharing the details of our investigation periodically so you both can update your superiors on the progress."
Xzar and Montaron looked at each other with a look that didn't suggest they disliked the idea. I could almost see the gears in their heads moving. Their job was to sit in town and relax while someone else does the dirty work? And they got to report the details to their superiors themselves, which meant they could add to the report that they did the work themselves. What a great deal!
"Think of it as a recruitment drive, me and Imoen doing the dirty work for the mysterious network while Xzar and Montaron give directions from the top brass," I continued. "Would we ever be allowed to know who we are working for and be initiated into their ranks?"
"That remains to be seen, depending on your performance," Xzar said, aloof.
"Not just anyone deserve the privilege," Montaron said in agreement.
This way, they think what we're after is joining the ranks of the Zhentarim. For protection, maybe. And the two of them get to lord it over us, use potential membership to order us around.
Imoen covered her mouth with eyes wide, wisely not saying anything. I could see what she was thinking too. This is how we use them then ditch them.
Of course, continued friendly correspondence with a powerful organisation like the Zhentarim could prove useful. I'm not sure if I could gain any real benefits out of the relationship since it wasn't available in the original game, but perhaps in-person the correspondence would yield some advantages. It was worth a try.
The first thing I needed to do while we were still in Lion's Way, of course, was grab myself a Ring of Protection +1 (named Ring of the Princess) in a tree (coordinates 1006.1114).
"Ya say he just happened to find a precious item. Again," Montaron asked Imoen in a way that was more of a comment than a question.
"Oh ho! Our adventure has been blessed by the sheer glory of my presence!" Xzar exclaimed.
"You weren't even there when he found the first gem, damnable wizard!" Montaron chided him.
"See, I'm so glorious I don't even need to be there! Shweeeng!" Xzar exclaimed, then took a spin and posed with a knee up, one hand outstretched and the other pointing at his head. Just like a K-pop idol.
…Wait, what? Does Xzar have access to K-pop? That, that might actually explain a lot.
Since I was still acting as the team tank, the ring went to me. Imoen almost moved in to stop me putting it on, seeing as how the ring was actually still unidentified. But when she saw it was safe and not cursed, she drew a sigh of relief.
We stuck to the roads from there, moving north. We were actually leaving behind another powerful magic item, a belt which protected from piercing and missile attacks if I recall, but this would be guarded by a powerful protector. It felt bad to leave the belt behind but I wanted to prioritise our resources for the battling assassin at the steps of the Friendly Arm Inn.
We arrived at Friendly Arm in at the hour just before midnight. Perfect. The conditions were right for me to take on Tarnesh.
…but first a quick sojourn to the side to nab myself a very nice Ring of Wizardry in a pine tree(x=2553, y=3760)! This powerful ring actually DOUBLED the number of level 1 spells a wizard could cast. Yowza!
Even Xzar was giving me strange looks at this point. Whoops.
"Isn't this a bit much?" Imoen commented, "The items you've been finding are getting more and more valuable. Next you'll be pulling out a Staff of Power from a random rock."
"What can I say, I'm on a streak!" I just smiled happily. Trying to explain the unexplainable was a losing battle anyway. This was the last hidden item of value for some time, but I shouldn't say that part out loud so confidently.
Back to Tarnesh the assassin. When I first played Baldur's Gate so many years ago, I had foolishly tried to explore the whole countryside and pick fights with everything on the map along the way. My party of me (a paladin, if you can believe it), Imoen, Xzar and Montaron were completely unprepared for an ambush by a high-level wizard right at the door-step of the Friendly Arm Inn.
Tarnesh has more levels in him than the whole party combined, which gives him access to deadly spells that we didn't actually have a counter for at that stage of the game. Mirror Image bought him time to do cast his most potent spell on his list: Horror. A low-level party is unlikely to make the saving throw needed to resist the panic induced by Horror, which gives Tarnsh time to Magic Missile the main character to death. His big weakness however is his fragility; at the end of the day, he was still a Wizard, level 5 or not. But I ended up having to reload game time after time to take him out.
The Potion of Clarity I had in my backpack that I had found in Candlekeep in is the ideal counter to Tarnesh's Horror spell. If possible, I would like to save this rare and valuable potion, but having it as an option was ideal.
Back to the present, the first thing I tried to do was to set a trap just beyond Tarnesh's sight. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the trap right. I only had a 25% chance of success with a Set Trap skill of 25 after all. Sinking points into Open Locks early on was biting me in the arse here. I may have scored myself a lot of money early, which will be very useful, but not having other skills when I needed them hurt me in my soul. Time for plan B.
Tarnesh was leaning against the footsteps of the main keep of the so-called Friendly Arm Inn, a inn that was a literal fortress. How Tarnesh knew he should wait right here was beyond me. Thankfully, he wasn't expecting to be ambushed himself. An oaken staff struck out from the darkness, and clobbered him from behind.
Apparently, one hit was all it took. Tarnesh went down.
I blinked at the body lying in front of me. Considering how much trouble he gave me before and how well I had prepared for this confrontation, this easy victory was rather anti-climatic. Just one tap to the back of the head. If that didn't do him in due to bad rolls, I did have a Wand of Magic Missiles as a follow up to finish the job before he could Mirror Image himself. I had also had my party waiting around the corner to back me up and the Potion of Clarity to ensure I didn't get panicked by Tarnesh's Horror spell. Not a guarantee, but certainly good odds.
Said party was coming around the corner to check on me now, so I made sure to do the thing.
I stood over Tarnesh with a staff on one shoulder, the other hand pointing at him. "You thought you were the hunter," the I said, then gave Tarnesh the thumbs down, "but you were the prey all along."
"…" was the initial reaction of Imoen, Xzar and Montaron.
Imoen gave me an incredulous look. "What the hell was that?"
I walked away, saying, "You wouldn't get it."
I couldn't see it, but I knew Imoen was rolling her eyes.
Unfortunately I had to walk right back to show the letter Tarnesh had on him to the guards that implicated him as an assassin. Damn, why can't a guy get to look cool for once?
Tarnesh was such a big deal for me, in spite of the easy kill this time, so I couldn't help but ponder further how I could have beat him easily. Only real guarantee to winning the encounter was to be a cleric without being super lame.
Being a cleric was the safest way of dealing all the low-level newbie traps in the game, and for whatever reason there were a LOT of newbie traps. The Cleric had access to the Remove Fear spell, which in spite of the name, actually prevented the Horror spell from taking hold at all. Most importantly, the Command spell that the cleric starts with knocked a target unconscious for one round, with no saving throw for targets with levels 5 and below. Guaranteed. With a full party wailing on the target, this is essentially a death sentence for most single enemies, like Tarnesh. Unfortunately, there was no cleric companion readily available just yet, so this option was only available for main characters who were clerics themselves.
I really wished I was a cleric myself!
Nonono, no regrets now. I'm the party thief, my job is to provide thieving skills. And that was Imoen's role too.
Ugh, that's an issue I'll deal with later. Stop lamenting, just take bringing Imoen along for the ride as part of the challenge. I can make it work. I will.
The Super LameTM way of beating Tarnesh? Do you really need to know? It's to run away and let the guards handle him.
Told you it's super lame!
Right after the battle and explaining myself to the guards, I did have a question for Montaron, the other backstab-happy fighter/thief in the party.
"Montaron, you're armed with a shortsword, right?" I asked before we moved into the inn, "How would you target your enemy's weak points if you can't reach them? I use a quarterstaff myself, so I don't have that issue."
Montaron gave a demonstration, with Xzar as a model, against Xzar's protests. Xzar stood with his back to Montaron, and Montaron creeped up silently. In a flash, Montaron was on top of Xzar, his blade to Xzar's neck.
"They never expect to be done in like this, see?" Montaron explained, satisfied.
He covered his own height in a single leap! Can I do that? "I'm very impressed. Thanks for the tip," I said, genuinely.
When I start specc-ing into daggers later, I was going to have to practice that move myself. Maybe Imoen could model? No, need someone taller. Maybe Minsc. Or more likely…
Khalid and Jaheira were sitting and drinking around the usual place they hung about in the game. Khalid was from Calimshan, which meant he looked… Turkish? It's not obvious from the in-game portrait, but in person his features were definitely that approximate region in the real world. Jaheira had more Caucasian features and brown hair herself. Both were half-elves, which are supposed to be quite rare but somehow we were practically swimming in them. Such are computer games, Baldur's Gate 3 will carry on this trend with spamming extremely rare races all over the place. Artists like drawing different stuff, and have little respect for lore.
Another funny thing about the two. Considering they were my foster father's long-time friends, they were AWFULLY low level compared to Gorion. The husband-and-wife team was level 1 like me!
At least, they normally would be if I recruited them straight away. The in-game system dictated that if I was a higher level when I recruited them, their levels would follow suit up to a certain point. It made more sense if Khalid and Jaheira were this higher level, so I was guessing that the world would default to the higher levels if I took the trouble to level myself up first. Hence the choice to postpone recruiting them until then.
The main issue was we needed to use the inn's services, and Khalid and Jaheira were right next to the innkeeper. How would we get by without them noticing me?
Khalid was the first to spot the halfling approaching the innkeeper, going around the other side of the table, away from himself and his wife.
"Ex-ex-excuse me," Khalid stammered out, "Might you be Sonny? Gorion's ward?"
Khalid and Jaheira had read many of Gorion's letter which described Sonny in great detail. Small and cute, even for an adult halfling. And ever so cuddly that Gorion wanted to pinch his cheeks every day!
An ugly-mugged, older halfling with a sinister look in his eyes looked back at them. "Ye spoke at me?"
Was Gorion… biased? Nonono, that was definitely not Sonny.
"Ah! Uh, my, my, my apo-apologies," Khalid said. "I, uh, I…"
"Mistaken identity, move along," Jaheira continued for him.
Montaron made a show of spitting before booking a room with Bentley, the innkeeper.
I waited upstairs as the rest made some purchases with Bentley. I felt a little sorry for Khalid and Jaheira, keeping them waiting without so much as greeting them. But I didn't know how the world would react to me saying hello so early without recruiting them, whether I would get the low-level versions or leveled up versions. So, to be safe, this was what I did. I just had to make sure to pick them up before reaching Nashkel, and things should work out from there.