Taking time out from the plot-critical path to nose around the hubs and their immediate surrounds can occasionally result in amusing - but dangerous! - side quests; three of my favorites I'll now treat.
Melicamp the Chicken: Why do I live in such a pissant town? - Thalanytr. This quest may only be found by exploration of the wilderness area south of High Hedge, there being no mention of it prior to bumping into Kissiq - a farmer who seems flustered by his encounter with a talking chicken! Having slain a wolf to save Melicamp the Chicken from certain death - but having no means to reverse the spell - the polymorphed apprentice reluctantly requests the party transport him back to his master, Thalantyr, a wizard who resides at the tower of High Hedge.
Even with Dispel Magic memorized and the correct dialogue option chosen, you cannot dispel the polymorph. In fact, players may not even realize Thalantyr can be dealt with, having been dismissed the first time they meet and the convo just ending abruptly. Moreover, two Flesh Golems hostilely patrol the halls of High Hedge until the player has successfully flattered Thalantyr to access his store... Flesh Golems are some of the toughest muthas in the campaign!
Even with Dispel Magic memorized and the correct dialogue option chosen, you cannot dispel the polymorph. In fact, players may not even realize Thalantyr can be dealt with, having been dismissed the first time they meet and the convo just ending abruptly. Moreover, two Flesh Golems hostilely patrol the halls of High Hedge until the player has successfully flattered Thalantyr to access his store... Flesh Golems are some of the toughest muthas in the campaign!
A long, amusing and well-written discussion ensues between the PC, wizard and apprentice, but the short of it is: the PC must find and bring Thalantyr a skull, a vital spell component for the reversal spell that will hopefully restore Melicamp to his human state. Luckily, the forests around High Hedge are teeming with skellies, each of which drop a skull upon being vanquished.
With a skull delivered to Thalantyr, the wizard proceeds to cast the esoteric "Anti-chickenator" spell, with the two possible outcomes shown below.
Below: Melicamp survives? +2000 Exp & +1 Rep. He doesn't? A popping chicken!
A wonderful quest though difficult to find let alone choose the right dialogue options for; and even the ending is subject to a coin-flip!
The Mad Cleric, Bassilus
heh heh hah hah.. Oh brother Thurm, why not grace our ears with a ripping tale of the old days, always a delight...
East of Beregost stands the Song of the Morning, a temple of Lathander overseen by Keldath Ormlyr, a priest who off-handedly mentions the bounty on the head of the mad cleric, Bassilus. No information is given on his whereabouts, but the madman can be tracked down south of High Hedge (the same area in which Melicamp is found), standing in the center of a mini-Stonehenge, surrounded by his murmuring legion of undead.
The key to dialogue with Bassilus is to play along with his delusion and then suddenly hit him with reality, causing him to lose control of his zombies & skellies which are thereby destroyed; otherwise you have to fight them, too! - and this priest of Cyric is already quite a handful, what with his castings of Rigid Thinking and Hold Person, followed up by mighty blows from his Warhammer +2: Ashideena. Truly a deadly encounter that, for low level parties, could easily go either way.
Upon returning Bassilus' Holy Symbol to Keldath in the temple, the player is rewarded with +500 Exp & +5,000 GP - the cash being hugely helpful at that stage of the campaign (and, as mentioned previously, the warhammer is an end-game wield).
Upon returning Bassilus' Holy Symbol to Keldath in the temple, the player is rewarded with +500 Exp & +5,000 GP - the cash being hugely helpful at that stage of the campaign (and, as mentioned previously, the warhammer is an end-game wield).
The Sculptor of the Elf-queen
Ahhh, beauteous creature! You are my masterpiece! - Prism.
From the self-important Oublek, the player hears of a local artist - Prism - wanted by the authorities for stealing two emeralds from Nashkel. The foppish, kind-hearted fellow is caught up with just outside the town's mines, rejoicing at being on the verge of completing his masterpiece, chiseled out of rock and highlighted in the eyes by the emeralds he stole. You can either act as bounty hunter and cut him down then and there (the reward for returning the emeralds to Oublek is +200 Exp & +300 GP, whether you kill him or not.), or promise to protect him from Greywolf while he puts the finishing touches to his sculpture. I'm doing the latter:
Greywolf now stomps in, ready to summarily lop off Prism's head! The party tries to reason with the brutish bounty hunter, but to no avail. Again, this encounter is deadly. Greywolf is a seventh level fighter wielding one of the finest swords in the campaign, the Longsword +2: Varscona; it's therefore best to just cast Blindness on him and pepper him with projectiles from outside his vision radius until he's dead.
The party having valiantly fought off Greywolf, Prism announces the completion of his work before falling to the ground, lifelessly. It seems he caught a glimpse of Ellesime, the emerald-eyed elf-queen of Suldanessellar (with whom the PC has major dealings in the sequel), and desired to capture her beauty in stone. Well, in this case he succeeded, though it cost him his life.
The party having valiantly fought off Greywolf, Prism announces the completion of his work before falling to the ground, lifelessly. It seems he caught a glimpse of Ellesime, the emerald-eyed elf-queen of Suldanessellar (with whom the PC has major dealings in the sequel), and desired to capture her beauty in stone. Well, in this case he succeeded, though it cost him his life.
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| A sad tale, with a sort-of happy result. |
These are just a few of the charming quests available in the campaign; there are many more of similar quality.
In closing this post, an interesting NPC can be found wandering the wilderness north of Nashkel: Lord Foreshadow; so-named because he foreshadows BioWare's subsequent RPG series, Neverwinter Nights. He also mentions Athkatla (the main hub of Baldur's Gate 2) and Waterdeep (the starting-point of Hordes of the Underdark). Here are the three responses:
Note also the Realms-flavored writing (sort of Middle English or "Shakespearean"), reflective of the FRCS body of literature; this was lost in the sequel and Neverwinter Nights.
Next up: Sound & Music.
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