linkage

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid541261008001?bctid=586540293001


this is AWESOME!!!

adventurin' i go...

My continuing adventures in the exciting world of Baldur’s Gate…

Off adventuring the party went; Penelope Farhaven (the half-elf Ranger, female), Branwen (the human Cleric, female), Kagain (the dwarf Fighter, male), Xan (the elf Mage, male), Kivan (the elf Ranger, male), and Imoen (the human Thief, female). Off to the east somewhere, the six heroes had to fight the unwitting minions of a witless wizard who thought he could “control” Mustard Jellies and Green Slime. Next, they did some tomb-raiding (never saw Lara Croft, though), and killed some Ghasts and a Revenant. Then there was the waylaying by a vicious party of four other adventurers, who actually managed to kill Xan and Kagain in the fight before their own miserable lives ended. Even after reviving the dead two at the Nashkel Temple of Helm, they still made a lot of gold off of that now-dead party of losers.

The six found a boy in the woods SW of Nashkel, who was looking for his lost puppy. They found the dog nearby, then were ambushed by three Amnish hunters (one of whom was apparently the world’s fastest dart thrower – now he is the world’s deadest dart thrower, lol). When they returned the “puppy” to the boy, the two of them turned into demons and vanished back into the Nine Hells…

More adventuring. Monster killing, woods exploring. Found a little girl’s dead pet for her (a cat that had drowned while going over a waterfall). Ran into Montaron and Xzar again, just West of Beregost; they got ticked off at the six heroes and they had to be put down when the evil twosome turned on the others and attacked them.

The Beregost locals say that with the Nashkel mines running smoothly again, the bandit attacks on caravans and travellers have grown even worse!

The six heroic adventurers ransacked a village of Xvarts and killed them all (because the little blue midgets are evil, after all!). After that, they made a trek far to the SW and entered the Gnoll Fortress, where they did make glorious slaughter and rescued the witch Dynaheir. She asked to join with them, but Penelope could not bear to leave Mr. WhineyPants Elf-Boy (Xan) behind and did not need two magic users in the party. Dynaheir strolled off in a huff.

Picked up some nice magic gauntlets at the Gnoll Fortress. After identifying them, Penelope gave them to Kagain to wear, effectively affecting the dwarf’s dexterity (and armour class) by 4 points. They also found a Tome that, when read by her, raised Branwen’s Charisma by 1 point.

More adventuring. Picked on some Basilisks (if you don’t know, a Basilisk’s stare will turn a person to stone). Killed a whole bunch of Dread Wolves and Vampiric Wolves. Saved a farmer’s cow from an Xvart attack. Learned that both Baldur’s Gate and Amn blame each other for the bandit raids, and a war between the two may soon be brewing. Got the best of four or five other groups of adventurers, killing them and looting their corpses for goodies. The 6 heroes took on four evil Red Thay magicians and wiped the floor with them. The six went to the ancient ruins of the Ulcaster School of Spellcasting, visiting the dungeons beneath it. Then they went to Gullykin, the halfling village, and found a traitor who had been allowing kobolds safe passage into the village. Killed the traitor, then searched the Firewine Bridge ruins and dungeons and found the Ogre Mage who was leading the kobolds and killed him too.

Also, went to the coastal region of the Sword Coast. Rescued a young boy trapped in an old lighthouse. In the general area, killed over ten sirines.

Got invited into the bandit camp by some dumb bandit dude in Larswood. Went into the camp and slaughtered them all, including the local leaders of the Chill and Black Talon mercenary groups. They found a prisoner there, who says the Iron Throne is behind everything. Says Tazok, who is supposed to be in charge of the bandit camp, isn’t here now, but that he has been making trips deep into the Cloakwood Forest…Also, find letters from “Davaeorn” to Tazok, who it sounds like is tazok’s employer. The letters also mention “Sarevok”, who seems to be Davaeorn’s boss. The notes also speak about hiring assassins to snuff out Penelope Farhaven.

Finally, the party now has enough gold to go to the wizard at High Hedge and buy Xan the Robes of the Neutral Arch-Magi, which drop his armour class from a 7 down to a 2! Yay! Well worth the 21,000 gold it took to purchase it…

The six stock up on Antidote potions, because the Cloakwood is supposedly full of big and nasty spiders.

Signs Within Signs

Mark 13:28-31

"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away."

We all assume this is talking about the signs fo the end, and that is true. That when we see all the signs happening that we are warned about, that the end is very near. Again, true.

But, do not miss the sign within the sign...the fig tree.

The fig tree represents Israel. Scripturally, it always does. When did the fig tree (Israel) blossom? May 14, 1948, Israel once again became a nation.

The generation that sees that will not pass away before the end is here and Christ returns to earth. Of course, any halfway decent biblical scholar knows that a generation is defined in the bible as 70 years.

So, you want to know how close we are to His return? We may not know the hour or the day, but we can be assured that it will be BEFORE May 15th, 2018.

For those of you who are not good with math, that day is 7 years and 9 months away.

That isn't a lot of time. And that is IF Christ holds out that long. He could come back any time now. He longs to. He longs to love on us, and that longing makes Him desire to end this all quickly and scoop us up in His loving arms. What a wonderful day that will be.

Behold!

Lyrics from

Mortification's "The Destroyer Beholds"


Disease in your life rots your soul
Wretched hinderance to your growth in God
Recycle countless sin, bondage brings
Wretched hinderance to your growth in God

Look at this young man, look at his face
What's the reason for this change
Revival in his heart
Causes havoc for the devil
The destroyer beholds
The destroyer beholds

Your faith infested by the flesh
Backslidden in your heart, you have no time for God
You don't read the Word, what's your case
Backslidden in your heart you have no time for God

Look at this young man, look at his face
What's the reason for this change
Revival in his heart
Causes havoc for the devil
The destroyer beholds
The destroyer beholds

Your God calls your name, you've been saved
You won't be tempted beyond your strength
Reach out to His grace, make a change
You won't be tempted beyond your strength

Look at this young man, look at his face
What's the reason for this change
Revival in his heart
Causes havoc for the devil
The destroyer beholds
The destroyer beholds

hello?

I am NOT a Pink Floyd fan, but yet somehow, maybe?, these lyrics seem to almost fit today...


Hello, hello, hello
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?

Come on, come on down,
I hear you’re feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain,
Get you on your feet again.

Relax, relax, relax
I need some information first.
Just the basic facts.
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying.

When I was a child, I had a fever.
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I’ve got that feeling once again.
I can’t explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am.

I have become comfortably numb.



I have become comfortably numb.

OK, OK, OK
Just a little pin prick.
There’ll be no more, aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh,
But you may feel a little sick.

Can you stand up, stand up, stand up.
I do believe it's working good.
That’ll keep you going for the show.
Come on, it’s time to go.

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying.

When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look, but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child has grown, the dream is gone.

I have become comfortably numb.

and more and more...

Now back to my continuing adventures in the world’s greatest game, Baldur’s Gate.

The group of six scouted out the farmlands around Nashkel. They found a very expensive set of Ankheg Shell Armour abandoned in a hole in a farmer’s field, and they endured the uber-annoying and ever-questioning simpleton, Noober. Then they talked to Nashkel’s mayor, Berrun Ghastkill, who asked them to help out at the mines, where the miners keep disappearing (never to be seen again) or being mysteriously killed.

The group visits the Temple of Helm in Nashkel, where the cleric Nalin tells them of Captain Brage of the Guard, who suddenly went crazy, killed his family, and ran off into the woods…

Next up is Oublek, who thinks that Penelope is the mercenary-for-hire Greywolf and tries to give her a reward for something Greywolf was hired to do (not accepted by Ms. Farhaven and companions). Oublek is in charge of public relations for the Guard, and says that there are rewards available for killing the lost Captain of the Guard, and for bringing back two stolen emeralds that are now in the possession of a missing local artist named Prism.

The group heads south, towards where the mines are.

Penelope finds a magic wand hidden in a tree stump. They enter a mine warehouse and discover it is full of vicious wardogs, so they kill them all. Next, to the South they find the artist Prism, working on a masterpiece cliff carving (using the stolen jewels as eyes). He is using potions to keep himself awake, and knowing that the potions will soon kill him he asks Penelope Farhaven and the others to stand guard while he finishes his work. They agree, and then are approached by Greywolf, who attacks them. The six lock into combat with Greywolf, allowing Prism the time to finish his work (and then expire). Greywolf falls, and they take a magic sword form his corpse, then loot Prism as well and reclaim the stolen emeralds.

Back to Nashkel they go, to claim the emeralds reward from Oublek (300 gold), to re-supply at the store and identify Greywolf’s magic sword (a magic longsword named Varscona), and to the Temple of Helm to get the wand indentified (Column of Ice wand). And to the Inn to rest.

In Nashkel’s Belching Dragon Tavern, a tale-teller and travel-guide author named Volo relates that the ore shortage is crippling the entire Sword Coast region, and that even when caravans get through the well-organized bandit raids, the resulting ore grows brittle and falls to pieces once smelted. Also, miners keep disappearing or getting killed. Volo also says that Captain Brage, a noted family man, went on a horrible rampage not long after buying an expensive new sword.

Now they head down into the mine pit, where the dubious foreman allows them to enter. Into the mine the six adventurers go. Through all three levels, they discover scared miners complaining about dog-headed demons attacking them, and they find the greenstone wedding ring but nobody wearing it. All over the mine, the six are attacked by hordes of invading kobolds. On the last level, they enter a natural-made tunnel and come to some natural caves. There, an evil half-orc cleric or wizard named Mulahey battled us, summoning skeletons and kobolds to help him and using magic spells, but the six defeat him. Documents hidden there show that Mulahey worked for some bandit leaders, and that he and his kobold minions were poisoning the ore and killing (or scaring off) the miners. But who are these bandit leaders?

They rescued a morose and depressed elven wizard who had been captured by Mulahey, his name is Xan. They add him to the group, leaving Jaheira behind.




Exiting the mines victorious, the foreman hailed them as heroes. Back they went to Nashkel, where they returned the greenstone ring to the new grieving widow. Penelope then told the mayor the good news about the mines, earning a 900 gold reward. Off to the Temple of Helm, to have the deceased Mulahey’s magical equipment identified. Then to the store to sell off their goods and re-stock.

Back outside the Nashkel store, they meet yet another assassin gunning for Penelope’s head in his trophy case. His name is Nimbul, and he ends up being more braggart than warrior – after a brief skirmish, he is toasted.

After a brief rest at the Nashkel Inn, the six adventurers have Nimbul’s equipment identified at the temple. They then get the clinically insane warrior Minsc to join the group, giving the bard Garrick the old heave-ho.




The group is now Penelope, Branwen, Minsc, Kivan, Imoen, and Xan.

They poked around the area near the mines and cleared out some groups of marauding gibberlings and kobolds. In the hills, they discovered a sick and wounded man, whose lover asks us to rush him immediately to the cleric at the Friendly Arm Inn, which they do.

Some more adventuring followed, culminating in discovering the mad cleric Bassilus, who was surrounded by the undead and talking with them as if they were alive family members. Nothing can be done for him, other than putting him out of his misery, which they do. Travelling North to Beregost, they visit the Temple outside of that town and are rewarded there for killing Bassilus.

While in Beregost, a child approached us saying that Officer Vai of the Flaming Fist wishes to speak to them. They find this officer Vai in the Jovial Juggler Inn, and she tells Penelope that she and the men under her command are cut off from returning to Baldur’s Gate because there are too many bandits blocking the way. She asks them to deal a serious blow to the bandits, and offers to pay Penelope a monetary reward for each bandit scalp they bring to her.

More general adventuring follows, including meeting and aiding the famed and renowned dark-elf warrior, Drizzt Do’Urden. The Drow warrior thanks them for their help, and warns them that the bandits are actually two rival mercenary groups working together, and suggests that they should endeavour to find out who has brought them together and for what purpose.

The group found Captain Brage, sitting amidst a slaughter of people in the deep woods. They managed to talk him into giving up his sword, which they were careful not to touch as it is obviously possessed. They led him to the Temple of Helm in Nashkel, who promised to try to help him get over what has happened to him, and Penelope gets a greater reward from the Temple than she would have gotten for turning Captain Brage over to Oublek and letting the Guard hang him for his crimes.

Unfortunately, at this point, Minsc attacks the rest of the party. We can do nothing, but kill him. Once again, my plans to use Minsc and Dynaheir in my party for the entire adventure were crumbled into rotten dust!

We got to Beregost, and add a (drunken) Dwarven fighter named Kagain to the party, in place of the now deceased Minsc. To get some spare cash, Imoen then entered every house on Beregost and stole everything not nailed down.

We entered the upstairs of Feldepost’s Inn, and confronted the wizard Tranzig, who had been in cahoots with Mulahey from the mines. Tranzig bragged a lot about being a great wizard, and how Penelope should fear him; he lied. The six adventurers wasted him. He had correspondence on him from Tazok, who seems to be in charge of the bandits and has a camp somewhere in the woods. He also had a few magic items on his person, which the local temple helped Penelope to identify.

happy birthday, MJ

Happy Birthday, to the girl with a thorn in her side.



May you not get what you want, may you not get what you deserve, but instead may the nail-scarred hand of the Saviour touch yours and bring life, light, forgiveness, and joy forever more.



You changed my life. Now, let the One Who saved my life, give you Life.

There are a ton of lyrics that would be appropriate to put here, on this date, following the above words. Kite by U2 comes to mind, as does anything by The Smiths. Instead, I'll go with honesty and hope...

"Turnaround" by Guardian


Jenny's sixteen, she was feeling down,
Living on the edge in a dead end town,
Everybody's talking, saying she's gonna fall, whoa,
Daddy left home when Jenny was five,
Mamma's broke down, is she dead or alive?
When it all adds up she's got nothing at all,
She got nothing.

You gotta turnaround, you know Love won't let you down,
I wanna tell you now, I know a Love that won't let you down.

Now she's eighteen,
Gonna leave it behind, heading for the city, got the lights in her eyes,
Gonna make it happen, she's playing to win,
Living high-wire with the "happening" crowd,
For a while she was happy, now it's bringing her down,
No matter where you go, you know it's all the same.

You gotta turnaround, you know Love won't let you down,
I wanna tell you now, I know a Love that won't let you down,
Ooh yeah, you gotta turnaround, you know Love won't let you down,
Won't let you down,
I wanna tell you now, you gotta turnaround, turnaround.

You lie awake and you remember the Love you felt so long ago, whoa,
The Voice that spoke to you when...when you were younger,
The Love of God won't let you go,
I want you to know, no, no, no.

Whoa,
You gotta turnaround, you know Love won't let you down,
No, no,no.
I wanna tell you now, I know a Love that won't let you down,
You gotta turnaround, you know Love won't let you down,
Won't let you down.
I wanna tell you now, you gotta turnaround, turnaround.

Won't let you down,
Won't let you down,
No, no, no, no, no,
Turnaround,
(fade)




Jesus bless you, MJ.


Added two brand new poems here...


http://leplaunpoetree.blogspot.com/2010/08/just-dance.html

and

http://leplaunpoetree.blogspot.com/2010/08/left-right-left.html

bg

Continuing adventures in Baldur's Gate...




Penelope’s party of six adventurers next went to the visit the wizard who lives at High Hedge castle just to the west of the town of Beregost. They then went south, found a talking chicken who claimed to be the wizard’s apprentice, and brought him back to the wizard. Said wizard was some pissed off, as instead of an apprentice he was a bumbling thief who had gotten himself turned into a chicken. The wizard eventually Antichickenatered him, and then accepted him as his real apprentice.

Penelope then ditched Xvar and Montaron from the party, and added in Kivan. Kivan is a quiet human Ranger who is looking for revenge on the bandit chieftain who killed his wife. Back to Beregost, and a stop outside the Red Sheaf to add the Bard Garrick to the party, the same one we had encountered earlier.

They then went south of Beregost and killed some half-Ogres who had a note form a man working the Nashkel mines to his wife waiting in Beregost. They returned the note to her and were rewarded with a magic ring. Had the ring Identified by the cleric in the temple to the east of Beregost, who also told them of a mad cleric named Bassilus who needed to be killed to stop his madness.

Went south of Beregost, following the road to Nashkel. Killed a large party of Orc bandits on the road. Entered the town of Nashkel, went into the Nashkel Inn and had to fight and kill another assassin waiting for Penelope – “who is funding these assassins”, wonders Penelope Farhaven. They went to the Manor House on the outskirts of Nashkel, where Khalid went to the second story and got into a fifteen minute fist fight with a jealous boyfriend named Jamie (Khalid was knocked unconscious more than ten times, lol!).

The woman who lives on the east edge of Nashkel asks them to look for her husband Joseph in the mines; they will know him by his greenstone wedding band. They then travelled east to the Nashkel Carnival grounds. There they saw the Amazing Oopah, the world’s only exploding Ogre, who became enraged after a few too many performancves and nearly killed his terrified wizard handler. With one swing of his mighty weapon, a huge morning star, Oopah killed Khalid dead. Unfortunately, the world now has no more exploding Ogres, as the adventurers had to kill Oopah.

A gnome at the carnival told us of a ‘Nordic princess’ turned to stone, and showed us the statue. Penelope used a Stone-To-Skin magic scroll on her, and thus did the war-cleric Branwen join their group in Khalid’s just-vacated spot.

Ne3xt, they entered a merchant’s tent to find a wizard named Zordral threatening to kill a female wizard that he claimed to be a dangerous witch. Penelope got him pissed off at them so he would attack them instead of the ‘witch’, and the party took him down and killed him. The woman, Bentha, thanked them, saying that she was not evil but that she and Zordral were old enemies; she left with them a small reward.

Back to Nashkel, sell off some unneeded supplies at the Nashkel Store and rest up at the Nashkel Inn.

Now, it is time to investigate the Nashkel Mines! They need to figure out what this huge iron shortage sweeping the area is all about…

heaven on earth...

Wouldn’t it be nice to just simply find somebody whom you feel completely comfortable with just being yourself with? To just not wish to hide anything from somebody, to know that you can be yourself, your true self, and that person will quietly accept you – wouldn’t that be an ideal mate?



I just want to be me – and have somebody completely accept me for that. No, more than that, I want somebody to love me FOR being me.

Ha!

What did the nervous man say to the maitre d' at the fine new restaurant?

"I have some reservations about this place."

Ha!



I wrote two new poems. They came about partially because 'somebody' mentioned that my poetry tended towards the dreary and pained. So, here's for you! :P (ps - this means it is all your fault. Ha!)

The first poem came about because I had a daydream during the ending credits of The Bourne Identity, to which I asked myself the question, "Self, wouldn't it suck if you wanted to be a dentist, but your siamese-twin wanted to be an assassin?"

The second poem came about, because I was feeling silly, and felt like being mildly inappropriate and offensive.


Shattered Dreams of Dentistry (Duck and Cover, Creep and Kill)

I had a dream, of dentistry
From a child young, a longing
As I grew, I just surely knew
The profession would give me a sense of belonging.

I studied and learned, midnight oil burned
Excelled in all that I applied
Day I got my smock and novocaine
Was a day my dream shone bright, and I cried.

I had a brother whose desire was to be an assassin
Which shouldn’t have been so hard on me
Excepting that my brother was a twin
And this twin happened to be Siamese.

It’s hard to do a proper root canal
To keep things neat and tidy
When your Siamese-twin keeps you up all night
And lack of sleep you attempt to be hiding.

I do not mean to be a complaining sort
I am thankful for the life I’ve been given
I just wish my sibling had the intelligence
To know that a Siamese-twin assassin makes it hard for me
To make a livin’.

He spends his nights in enemy territory
Creeping with stealth and much skulduggery
Whilst I bump and bruise along behind him
(Even a dentist knows that nothing good rhymes with skulduggery).

Dentistry is my profession chosen
And it is all I ever wanted to have been
But I curse the day my brother chose
To be my Siamese-twin paid assassin.

(with apologies to the physically-joined, and anyone born in Siam)



August 1st, 2010





Stutterer’s Delight


Stutterer’s d-d-d-de-l-l-light
S-s-s-seeing my l-l-love on
On a, on, on a, on a
S-s-sum-summer’s b-b-breez-breez-breezy
Night.


( I am SO going to Hell for this, aren’t I? )


August 2nd, 2010




Meanwhile, in my Baldur's Gate game, in the town of Beregost the six adventurers met up with the Bard named Garrick outside of the Burning Wizard pub. He hires the six on the spot, to protect his employer, a woman named Silke, from, some thugs who are out to kill her. Garrick leads them around the corner, to a place outside of the Red Sheaf Inn. There they meet Silke, who says that three thugs are approaching now and that the six must kill them on the spot before they are allowed to speak as they might cast magic spells and kill them all.

The three 'thugs' appraoch, and it is immediately obvious that they are not what Silke made them out to be, as she seems to be their employer and has asked them to meet her here at this spot. Penelope refuses to attack them, and Silke turns on the six instead. As she begins to cast a magic spell herself, the six attack and take her down. Looting her corpse reveals a magic-enhanced quarterstaff, which Jaheira takes to replace her regular one.

The three merchants (not thugs) reward Penelope with a potion. Garrick asks if he can join the group, but Penelope declines, thinking he is either entirely untrustworthy or a real dupe. Garrick stumbles off in a hough.

They head off next to the famous Thunderhammer Smithy, where the magical quarterstaff is properly identified and where penelope upgrades her armour to plate mail.

Then they go back and enter the Red Sheaf, where the assassin Karlat (a dwarf) awaits. After a tough battle, the group takes him down.

blogga-game-blogga-game

I have been playing the world’s greatest computer game, Baldur’s Gate, on my new computer. I had actually gotten about 1/3 of the way through it, and then began to find myself running into a few glitches. So I went online yesterday (now that I am back online. Did I mention that I am back online now?) and downloaded a patch for my game. Unfortunately, it was the WRONG patch, and it made my game completely freeze up on me and have to be completely re-installed. Sigh...it is a good thing I love Baldur’s Gate so much!

Anyways, I re-installed Baldur’s Gate on my new computer (did I mention that I have a new computer?), and started playing all over again from the beginning.

My main character is named Penelope Farhaven. Penelope is a half-elven Ranger of Chaotic Good alignment. Penelope is a red-headed gal, and I downloaded her picture from the good folks at Ironworks for use in this game. http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/baldursgate1/portraits_08.shtml



Here are her starting stats:

Strength = 18 , Dexterity = 18 , Constitution = 18, Intelligence = 12, Wisdom = 14, and Charisma = 10.

You would think that either intelligence or wisdom would be important attributes for a Ranger, but apparently they are not, lol.

Currently, I have gone through the “pre” section of the game, which takes place in the ‘town’ of Candlekeep, where two separate assassins (as opposed to siamese-twins assassins - wouldn't it suck if you wanted to be a dentist, and your siamese twin wanted to be an assassin?) try to kill Penelope. From there, Penelope’s foster-father Gorion took her out into the wilderness, where he was attacked and killed defending her from armed assassins. Penelope was then officially on the run, joined by her childhood friend Imoen (Hey-a!” and “Whattaya want?” are some of her sayings). Imoen is a female human, and a thief. . Imoen and Penelope soon joined up with the evilly-inclined companions Montaron and Xzar . These two are evil members of the Zentarim, sent out to investigate the iron-shortage going on in this area. They do not like each other much. Montaron is a male gnome, a fighter and a thief. Xzar is a male human wizard, and is quite insane. While Montaron is vengeful and hateful and mutters under his breath about killing others while they sleep (“sleep lightly, taskmaster” and “go suck your blade” are two of his favourite things to say), Xzar has several different personalities residing in his head and will blurt out odd things in a loud voice as he argues with himself – really quite an unstable sort! He says things like "Your voice is ambrosia" and "Stop touching me!" The two are heading south to the town of Nashkel to investigate the iron mines there, and grudgingly agree to let Penelope and Imoen go with them.

The four arrive at the crossroads without too many encounters with wild animals, monsters, and bandits. The evil twosome glare when Penelope turns north towards the Friendly Arm Inn, but she goes towards it because Gorion told her that she could find two friends of his there that were trustworthy.

The Friendly Arm Inn is a former fortress, now operated as a safe haven by a band of gnomes. Included there are a store, an inn, a bar, some homes, and a cleric’s temple for healing. It is here that an even more powerful, magic-wielding assassin tries to take the life of Penelope, but is killed by the group. Shortly afterwards, the foursome meet up with Gorion’s friends, named Jaheira and Khalid. Khalid is a human male, a nervous and stuttering warrior-type , who says things like “Y-y-you have need of me?”. Jaheira is his lover, a take-charge, brash and loud type, a female half-elf who was raised by druids and thus is a druid herself ; she says many boring things like “For the group” and "Better leadership would help``. The two are members of the Harpers, a mysterious organization whose members work behind the scenes to order events for the greater good of all. The duo are sorry to hear of the loss of Gorion, and mention that he had often told them to look after Penelope if anything happened to him; Khalid and Jaheira also happen to be leaving to go south to investigate the Nashkel Mines, and they join the group (bringing the group up to its maximum of 6 people).

Penelope meets up with a lady complaining that her husband’s ring was stolen by a group of Hobgoblin bandits to the north of the Friendly Arm Inn. Penelope agrees to look into this for her. She also meets a lady whose house in Beregost is infested with spiders and wishes the spiders killed and some of her things returned to her. Ever the humanitarian, Penelope agrees to look into the matter. In the upstairs of the inn, the party meets a rude rich man from the great city of Waterdeep who is crying out that he needs his pants pressed at once! Penelope grabs the pants away from him, promising to get them pressed for him at once; but when the party leaves the inn, she goes by his room and throws the wrinkled golden pantaloons back into his flustered and shocked face! Also upstairs, there is a Halfling with a tale of an Ogre to the south who took a magical belt from him in exchange for his life.

The group heads north and confronts several groups of Hobgoblin bandits, then return the ring to the grateful woman. They then head to the crossroads area and investigate the nearby woods, where they discover several burnt and looted wagon caravans – evidence of bandits at work in the area, and well-organized ones. They also stumble across an ogre with an attitude, and after taking him down they relieve him of his magic belt, which Penelope claims as her own (it protects the wearer against arrows).

Penelope’s current group of six has now headed south, past the crossroads, and has arrived in the bustling little city (or larger town, I guess) of Beregost. Farmers on the outskirts complain that their farmhands have run off in the night, and that their cattle are missing or dead.




So, that is where I am currently at in my game. Usually when I adventure in Baldur’s Gate, I end up with the same trusted people in my group at some point, the old safe standbys. My main character, plus Imoen, Branwen the cleric (who says, “Our actions are not those of warrior born!”), Jaheira the druid, Kivan the Ranger (who says very little, but when he does is very polite), and Xan the depressed elven wizard (who sprouts encouraging things like “I don’t even know why we bother...” and ``We`re all doomed...``).

But this time through the game, I am going to try something a little different. I have played this game numerous times, but I have never been able to hang onto Minsc as a character, mainly because he always insists on raiding the Gnoll Fortress and rescuing the witch Dynaheir. And I never have been able to rescue Dynaheir, so then Minsc gets mad and attacks my other party members and we have to kill him.

But this time, this time, I am going to try again, and if I succeed then I will take Minsc and Dynaheir with me on my adventures (replacing the regulars Jaheira and Xan), which will be something new. Stay tuned for more, as we see if I can finally accomplish this or not. I am not sure what Dynaheir is actually like, as I have only seen her as a corpse before, but Minsc is an insane warrior who carries around a rat that he insists is “Boo the giant miniature space hamster” and carries on actual conversations with him.

There are seriously a ton of characters in Baldur’s Gate that you can add to your party. As many times as I have played the game, there are still many characters that I have never adventured with for any length of time. Sigh...so much to choose from, so little time in the day!