Onward to the poison quest! We were going to make a beeline for the man we had been avoiding in the central district all this time, Lothander! This was the guy who had been accompanying Marek earlier who had given us a warning from the Iron Throne.
---
Along the way, I spotted a man in plate mail waiting in the streets, armed with a magnificent crossbow.
He approached our party. "Hold! You are the new mercenaries in town, are you not?"
Oh, right. I had completely forgotten about this guy. My special delivery from Aldeth had arrived, hurrah!
"The term you are looking for is adventurers. Get it right," Jaheira replied.
The man spat. "Adventurers, ha! Murderers is the more fitting word. Did you not kill a small group of hunters along the edge of Cloakwood?"
Jaheira's eyes narrowed. Then she gave the man a chilling smile. "The small group of hunters who murdered a druid? Technically we handed them to the druids to be punished, but had it come down to it we would gladly killed those scum."
The man's eyes flared. "SCUM?! How dare you! That was my brother Aldeth you gave over to be murdered by savages! You shall pay dearly for that!"
This was Dabron Sashenstar, Aldeth Sashenstar's brother. Thanks to his magnificent crossbow, he had Thac0 3 and APR2 with it. His prowess with his Morning Star+1 was much less impressive at Thaco13 and APR1.5. Funnily enough, Dabron is actually chaotic good. I guess he was really just a loyal brother who had overlooked his brother's faults.
Since he had approached us in close range, Dabron had to sheath his crossbow and bring out his Morning Star instead. That was his first mistake. His second mistake was focusing on Khalid who had moved in to engage him, who had an AC of -7. His third mistake was not paying attention to the little halfling sneaking up behind him and clobbering him over the head from behind.
Loot: Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy, Morning Star +1, Plate Mail
The Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy which Dabron had helped deliver to our hands had a +2 bonus to damage and an incredible 5 bonus to Thac0! It really did deserve its name of crossbow of accuracy! It had a minimum strength requirement of 12, which meant it was suitable for… uh, which companions were trained in crossbows? Garrick and Kagain, and that's it? The crossbow was indeed powerful, but I didn't prioritise it for this reason.
---
Lothander was hanging around the market square. He sped towards us, clearly wearing boots of speed. His arms we raised however. "I am Lothander, partner of the assassin Marek. I do not wish you harm."
We gave him a chance to make his case.
Lothander explained that we had been poisoned by Marek, Lothander's partner who had threatened us some time ago. The poison was slipped into our rations while we were sleeping, and we had but days to live. "Common priest spells won't help you. Only one thing can, and that's the antidote. I can help you find it, if you help me first."
"Why would you help us? Don't you work for the Iron Throne?" Jaheira asked.
"Not willingly. I have been enspelled with a geas. If I do not obey everything that Marek orders of me the spell will take effect and I shall waste away. I need a way to rid myself of the spell. I know of a diviner at the market square who may have the answers I seek, but I don't have the money to pay him. Will you help me?"
We didn't really have a choice.
First, we made a point to dispose of all our current rations and buy fresh ones at the market, considering we didn't know which of it was still poisoned. Then we followed Lothander to one of the tents, which was clearly marked as a Fortune Teller's.
---
The diviner in the Fortune Teller tent was all business. "You wish to hear the arcane knowledge of Haspur? It will cost you 50 gold for the answers to your questions no matter how small. Will you pay, or will you leave?"
Was his name Haspur or did he command the magic of Haspur? Eh, whatever. We gave the diviner the money.
"Now what is it that you wish to know? I must tell you, I only have the strength to answer a single question in a day, so be careful in what you ask."
There were so many questions we wanted to ask! But for now, we had to settle for "Who has the ability to release Lothander of his geas?"
"Only the high priestess Jalantha Mistmyr of Umberlee has the power to remove Lothander's Geas. She can be found at the Water Queen's House. It is difficult to see whether or not she will help you."
The Water Queen's home being the temple of Umberlee in the city. I half expected it to be named the Bitch Queen's home, judging from how much her own priestesses leaned into that title.
And with that, we had our objective. Lothander would meet us back at the Blade and Stars Inn in the southeast district when we had found the cure for his geas.
---
The diviner can truthfully answer a lot of different plot relevant questions, but only one question every 24 hours. New players who wanted a hint how to continue various major quests could check with this diviner. Which was useless to me since I had foreknowledge of all the answers related to the original game.
…or was it? Hrm. Perhaps there were OTHER possibilities I could consider. After 24 hours, that is. Maybe after I finish my item collection run.
---
I first led the party to the west district. "We don't have a reason to trust an untested diviner's words 100%. May as well check if other temples can remove a geas. The priests at the Temple of Tymora are bound to be more sympathetic to our plight then the servants of Umberlee," I reasoned with the rest.
I was lying of course. I just wanted to pick up a related quest with a nice reward first.
A child near the temple of Tymora ran up to us. "P-please, might I have your ear a moment? My name is Varci, and I have heard you sometimes help those in need, f-for a fee of course. Please, would you meet with my guardian at his house? My guardian will reveal the nature of the job once we arrive. Please, it's a matter of death of life."
This was Varci Roaringhorn, and his matter was indeed one of life and death. I let Khalid do the talking though, confident in Khalid's response.
Khalid knelt to the child's level and said to him with gentle eyes. "Lead on young one. I will follow."
Varci brought us to a home nearby, where a man dressed in senior priest clothes of Tymora was pacing around the room. When we entered the room with Varci, he looked up at us in alarm. "Varci! Who have you brought here?! I told you I must be alone with my thoughts!"
Varci pleaded that they needed outside help to fix what's done. "Talk among the alleys say this group may be effective as any we could hope for."
Varci always says that in the game, but now that I had completed some quests for the thieves guild it made more sense I would have a reputation in 'the alleys'.
The priest scowled at Varci. "You'll tell me later how you know in what alleys to learn such things. For now, however, you are correct. We are in need of assistance and none in the clergy must know," he said to Varci. To us, he said, "Greetings to you all. I am Lord Priest Tremain Belde'ar, a humble servant of Our Smiling Lady Tymora. My request of you is an odd and very dangerous one. I will not hold you to it if you deem it too extreme. I would have you enter the Water Queen's House and retrieve my son's body."
The Lord Priest's son, Casson, and Varci had sneaked into the temple of Umberlee, of ALL places, to play a prank on the people there. Unfortunately, Casson was caught. And killed.
"They killed a child for a prank?!? I knew the priests of Umberlee be sick in the head, but this is too much!" Jaheira exclaimed.
"Technically the children had trespassed onto sacred ground. But yes, it is far too large a price for children to pay," Branwen said. "Tis disgraceful and cowardly behaviour for anyone of the cloth."
"If the child was killed, isn't it too late? What good will bringing the body to you do?" Imoen asked.
"I will attempt to revive him," Lord Priest Tremain Belde'ar said, his face grim. "Whether or not I am able, you will be rewarded."
I conferred with the party. "We know what the priestesses of Umberlee are like by now. They are transactional by nature, extorting gold in exchange for 'favors' from Umberlee. However, as it happens we have a 'favor' to trade for another."
I was looking to Khalid when I said this, and he nodded in understanding. "Our favor with the young priestess of Umberlee will be traded for the body of the child."
There was one thing I checked with Tremain before we left for the temple of Umberlee. "Is the temple of Tymora able to remove a geas?"
He shook his head. "I'm afraid not. As far as I know, in Baldur's Gate only the a certain priest of Umberlee has access to such magic."