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As I recall there was a game based off of one of Salvatore's books back in the mid-'90s, so I'm guessing the weird CGI portraits for Regis and Bruenor are screenshots from that.
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May 19, 2021 04:12
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Seyser Koze posted:As I recall there was a game based off of one of Salvatore's books back in the mid-'90s, so I'm guessing the weird CGI portraits for Regis and Bruenor are screenshots from that. Oh so it's NOSTALGIA! I can at least comprehend "I always imagine them like that lovely mid-90s CG game I played as a kid, so I use portraits from that" vs "I inexplicably am using weird CG when there's better options available."
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May 20, 2021 01:51
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Actually the game I was thinking of was Menzoberranzan, and it turns out that it's just good old-fashioned VGA pixel art. So I have no idea.
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May 20, 2021 01:57
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Seyser Koze posted:Actually the game I was thinking of was Menzoberranzan, and it turns out that it's just good old-fashioned VGA pixel art. So I have no idea. WELP
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May 20, 2021 02:00
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Mass Effect has been occupying most of my free time so updates will be slow for a while.
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May 20, 2021 19:51
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Seyser Koze posted:Actually the game I was thinking of was Menzoberranzan, and it turns out that it's just good old-fashioned VGA pixel art. So I have no idea. And Drizzt was the only member of his party to appear in that game.
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May 21, 2021 22:03
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Vichan posted:Mass Effect has been occupying most of my free time so updates will be slow for a while. are you going to romance miranda or not miranda?
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May 21, 2021 22:07
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Oh, god. Younger me was SO into Haer'dalis.. I was super unsure of my sexuality back than. Mass Effect didn't help. Mass Effect 2 was ... good. Enjoy your time with Shepard, it's gonna be quite short...
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May 21, 2021 22:51
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Chapter CX - Oh, my, this reminds me of Noober or Roober. Say, your name is by chance *Floober*? Not the most exciting chapter so we might as well get it over with.  Some Harpers track us down but we manage to avoid a fight.  If Sandrah content is the only reason why you're reading this you might want to skip this one, this is all we're going to get.  We're doing Rasaad's quest today.  Viconia will replace Jaheira.  Let's rest up before heading over there.  ...Oh, oh dear...    We're here for two minutes and already I manage to get robbed.  I mostly invited Viconia for the additional flavor.       I dumped Viconia somewhere to avoid any trouble going forward. We can use the empty party slot.  On our way to the temple we are ambushed.   A mere bump on the road.     Act like a cultist, shouldn't be that hard.  Rasaad is such a buzzkill.  Going smooth so far. (I doubled back and dumped Viconia after this part)  Killing animals?   We manage to save this fine gentleman...   ...And add him to our party. Say hello to Beamdog's secret NPC!  I probably should've just let them bake, morons.  We'd done all we can outside, time to continue.  Great, more trials.     They beat you after every dialogue choice.     That's it for the trials.  Uh-oh, looks like this whole thing was one big sham.  After some smoke and mirrors...  One of these days they'll learn not to mess with me.  And that's it for Rasaad's quest and his involvement in the SoA portion of Baldur's Gate.     We take care of some stronghold stuff on our way back to Athkatla.  We're also making some party changes.  Some romance talk...   As well as some banters with Edwina.   Heading back to the Planar Sphere we get into some 'planar sphere mod' content, let's see what it's all about.   Yeah, sure. Make yourself at home. Both of you.      Oh dear, that went way better last time...    Pro-tip: Don't make deals with devils.  Melicamp is also hear, he doesn't appreciate our attitude though.    ...  That's pretty much it for that particular mod. I only did it because I was promised it'd have Sandrah content but no luck there. Next time we'll be heading to Portpentyrch which'll hopefully be somewhat less dull. Vichan fucked around with this message at 12:02 on Nov 7, 2021 |
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May 24, 2021 12:20
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One thing I really like about the base series is that despite the PC having no established personality, you're always presented with enough dialogue option that one of them fits whatever character you've got in your head. This is most noticable when contrasted against that Rasaad quest line. You've got the whole heresy and whether there's anything to it, you've got Rasaad's inner conflict about being sneaky, and yet the PC doesn't actually get to engage with either, they can just choose between being a jackass, a dumbass, or assault. Not a single word of what the PC says actually affects the quest, outside of picking the "pick a fight" option, but even so there's so much loving dialogue and all of it is terrible. Like Sandrah does the same thing and does it even worse, but she's just written by one crazy person rather than what was presumably a team of writers and editors who looked this over and thought "yeah this is good poo poo."
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May 24, 2021 13:16
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You put Wilson back in the party right now.
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May 24, 2021 14:33
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Black Robe posted:You put Wilson back in the party right now. I might take him with me to Spellhold, although that'll probably mean that I'll have to ditch him in the Underdark.
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May 24, 2021 15:31
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:One thing I really like about the base series is that despite the PC having no established personality, you're always presented with enough dialogue option that one of them fits whatever character you've got in your head. This is most noticable when contrasted against that Rasaad quest line. You've got the whole heresy and whether there's anything to it, you've got Rasaad's inner conflict about being sneaky, and yet the PC doesn't actually get to engage with either, they can just choose between being a jackass, a dumbass, or assault. Not a single word of what the PC says actually affects the quest, outside of picking the "pick a fight" option, but even so there's so much loving dialogue and all of it is terrible. I hear the dialog tree for the twofold path stuff in TOB is loving insane, like you have to make the exact right series of choices and it's a series of ten or so.
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May 24, 2021 20:08
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:One thing I really like about the base series is that despite the PC having no established personality, you're always presented with enough dialogue option that one of them fits whatever character you've got in your head. This is most noticable when contrasted against that Rasaad quest line. You've got the whole heresy and whether there's anything to it, you've got Rasaad's inner conflict about being sneaky, and yet the PC doesn't actually get to engage with either, they can just choose between being a jackass, a dumbass, or assault. Not a single word of what the PC says actually affects the quest, outside of picking the "pick a fight" option, but even so there's so much loving dialogue and all of it is terrible. When writing Darian and Valerie, I consciously tried to give the PC a few different potential voices when interacting with them. With Darian, I wrote three main ways for the PC to approach him: as diplomatic and respectful of his boundaries, as playful and flirty and irreverent, and as suspicious and prickly. With Valerie, I simplified it as the PC being respectful and diplomatic or being a bit sarcastic and prone to teasing Valerie over her eccentricities, or just telling her to keep her thoughts to herself. It's a convenient shorthand to give a range of consistent personalities to the PC, but you do need to remember to engage the player and player character with what's going on.
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May 24, 2021 20:13
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Vichan posted:Next time we'll be heading to Portpentyrch which'll hopefully be somewhat less dull. I'm having a lot of issues with this particular mod so I might just skip it altogether if I can't get it to work.
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May 25, 2021 10:53
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Wilson is no Okku but I still like the MC talking to him.
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May 25, 2021 15:50
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Chapter CXI - A good idea. (Oh, a full appreciation of that girl fighting without the need to participate with my spells. What a delight.) We're actually going to make some headway this time around, go figure.  Even Anomen gets some hits in.  I was starting to miss Jaheira already so she's back.  The first time I did her romance I found it to be really hard, probably because my English wasn't quite up to snuff.  We're heading to Portpentyrch, the town Elminster told us about.     Aside from monsters the town seems to be completely deserted.  Anomen talks a bit about his father while we're exploring.   We find this journal in one of the houses.  Great-looking area though. The lighthouse is locked, also take note of the shipwreck.  The place we need to go to is this shack.  Looks like we're going to have to check out this lighthouse.  We also pick this thing up before leaving, it might come in handy.  Going up the lighthouse we run into the Red Wizard, sorta.  There's a tanar'ri at the top that has another errand for us.  We use the pickhammer to open a passage in this cave here.  It's filled with enemies, as expected.  After a certain point we can't continue, we keep getting teleported back. We might have to double back to the lighthouse.  ...God drat it, looks like it's back to Athkatla for us.   To the West Government district, to be exact.    There's a couple of sidequests and things to find here, this being the most memorable one.  More romance talk.  After checking every available house we finally find the person we were looking for, looks like we'll have to wait a bit before we can talk to her again.  Some wizard comes looking for Edwin but Vichan ain't no snitch.   When we come back Ceinwen seems to be gone.  Ugh, Cowled Wizards blow... She gives us a sidequest but we haven't progressed far enough in the main quest to reach that area yet.  Charlatans...   Great, time to head back once again.  Anomen, you blowhard.   To continue this quest we have to kill a vampire kid in the catacombs. Specifically in an area we can't actually reach yet. I guess that means we'll have to shelf this particular quest and save it for later.   I decided to use Tazok's key in the sewers so we could beat up the mind flayers hiding out there.  Sandrah actually has something to say about the situation. This would've continued if I had Check the Bodies installed but unfortunately that isn't the case. ...You know what? Screw it. I think I've dawdled long enough, time to head to Barterman's to sell about 30000 GP's worth of gear so I have enough money to get to the next chapter.  And just like that Valen shows up to invite us to the Graveyard District, with a twist!   Could it be...? (And really, we're going to give Skie a hard time for being talkative when we have Sandrah in the party!?)  More on that later, we have to get to a temple first!  The ritual seems to have been a success!  Looks like we won't have to wait long before our names are cleared! I guess having Skie back amongst the living is okay as well.  Sandrah's right, maybe it's best if we start looking for some alternatives™. Let's try the government district first.  I guess we're supposed to overhear this conversation somehow. This might be worth looking into!  Yet another mysterious stranger offers to get us the hell out of Dodge.  Normally I'd end things here but there's one area of Athkatla we haven't visited yet.   I'm not going to showcase this area in great detail, we're just here for the Sandrah content.    Letting Sandrah participate in the fighter's tournament nets us yet another piece of OP gear.     Irenicus doesn't stand a chance!   Plenty of options to choose from, we'll save the actual choice for next time. Vichan fucked around with this message at 12:02 on Nov 7, 2021 |
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May 25, 2021 20:35
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So yeah, after basically running into a brick wall I decided to say 'gently caress it' and actually proceed with the main quest for once. So it seems that we have four choices going forward: 1. The Shadow Thieves, not the most trustworthy of companions. 2. The Vampires, who may very well be in league with Irenicus. 3. The Order of the Aster, Lathandarites who seem to be the 'good' option. 4. The mysterious Malficus who offers us a ticket out of this dump, bypassing Spellhold completely. There's one option I (and Sandrah for that matter) prefer to the others but I'd really love to hear your opinion on the options that are before us. I may even decide to do all four of them and pick a 'canon' option after the fact.
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May 25, 2021 20:38
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Shadow Thieves. I'm more curious about how modders changed this than I am in the ?new? options, tbh.Vichan posted:Even Anomen gets some hits in. Much as I generally regret having made the Darian mod, I enjoyed writing him taking the opportunity to gently caress with Edwina.
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May 25, 2021 20:44
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Does Malficus somehow loop you into chapter 4? Because bugging out to Maztica does sound like a nice break.
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May 25, 2021 21:42
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I vote...vampires! Though I was very tempted to vote Malficus because that sounds wacky.
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May 26, 2021 01:31
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Hey, ho, Matzica! far to the west where the cactus grow...
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May 26, 2021 02:03
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Shadow Thieves. I'd like to see how the normal route goes.
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May 26, 2021 03:11
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Midnight Voyager posted:Shadow Thieves. I'd like to see how the normal route goes. same
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May 26, 2021 03:57
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Also have you visited the mystery mistress in the Graveyard yet? Because in vanilla you cannot actually side with the vampires if your PC is a thief, on account of the thief stronghold being a Shadow Thief guild hall. Probably a mod removes that restriction, but it may not be an option.
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May 26, 2021 12:35
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:Also have you visited the mystery mistress in the Graveyard yet? Because in vanilla you cannot actually side with the vampires if your PC is a thief, on account of the thief stronghold being a Shadow Thief guild hall. Probably a mod removes that restriction, but it may not be an option. I was worried about this as well but I've managed to join them without any problems.  I've decided to go with the 'four timelines' option, probably spread across two chapters. The Maztica option definitely won't be the one we'll go with for reasons you'll understand when we get to that point but it's probably worth showcasing all the same.
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May 26, 2021 12:49
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Order of Aster, I am very curious about this addition and I've done both canon paths many times.
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May 26, 2021 15:19
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Chapter CXII - You have made the expected progress from the fledgling young priestess under your mighty father's wing to a powerful cleric, Sandrah.  We start with some Jaheira romance shenanigans.  Jaheira and Edwin make way for Yoshimo and Korgan.  He seems trustworthy, I don't know why I don't bring him along more often. Anyway, there's four options in front of us and I'll show them all to you this chapter.    We start with the Shadow Thieves.  Not this aga-  Oh, that's right. Anomen's actually here now.  We meet up with Aran Linvail who immediately saddles us with chores.    Farewell, Mook. We hardly knew ye.   More tasks...  They don't stand a chance.  Neither does this guy.  ...Is this a Chloe-specific thing?   It doesn't take much to save her.  Gee, thanks.    Next up is the vampire stronghold! For the sake of brevity I'm not going to be focusing much on these areas aside from mod content.   I didn't expect to run into an NPC here, she's replacing Korgan for the time being.  The child vampire's here, I use the special sword to slay her. I'm thinking of continuing this particular quest after our return from Spellhold though.  I doubt Ninde will stick around long enough for them to talk again, but who knows.   All vampires are slain, which means...   Bodhi used to give me a lot of grief, she gives up in seconds this time.  Sandrah finally has something to say about our quest and it's so inane. Figures.   That's it for the Shadow Thieves, aside from other mod content Sandrah really didn't have all that much to add here. Let's make a save and reload so we can try...  I haven't picked Bodhi in well over a decade.  Nothing gets past Chloe.  I do get the feeling that's someone keeps watching me from far up above...   This had better be worth the time and effort.   Meet one of the earliest NPC mods for Baldur's Gate II.  Poor Mook, she can never catch a break. (Also holy poo poo does Arkanis Gath pack a punch)      Quite an odd bunch.  That doesn't sound so bad.   Piece of cake.  Sounds like quite a tall order, we'd best get to it.  Coo!  After a long, torturous trek through the Thieves' Guild we face Aran Linvail.  Don't try to outsmart Sandrah, Chloe. You're not suited for it. Speaking of Sandrah, why is she so silent!? You'd think she'd have a lot to say here!  You didn't think I'd leave this place empty-handed, did you?  That was...an experience.  That's it for Bodhi's route. This time Sandrah didn't have anything to say at all. Maybe the mod options are better? Let's start with Malficus.   Yes, I'm actually that good at puzzles. This didn't involve trial and error at all. Stop looking at me like that!  Assassination, this'll be interesting!  Once this flask is in your inventory it can never be removed even after the quest. Great.     Flawless.   I'm getting a bad feeling about this.  Korgan and Anomen do not get along. Shocking.  We have to do the Thieves' Guild again, be thankful that I'm saving you guys the trouble by skipping to the end.  Aran falls again.  Great, it's off to Maztica for us!  I'm thinking we just fought the wrong enemy.  I'm really curious as to what will happen now.  ... ... ...Seriously? You're seeing that right, for some reason it just takes us back to the Thieves' Guild route. Is this intended? Is it a bug? Is it laziness? ...I guess we'll just move on to the Order of Aster. Sandrah was subtly hinting that we should take this option so hopefully she'll comment a lot here.   ...We're getting right to it, huh?    Third time's the charm, I suppose.  Looks like Bodhi's next.  Get back here, coward!  The name might be different but this mage is exactly the same as the Thieves' Guild one, this time he actually dies like he's supposed to.   This is barely different from before.  Hold on to your hats, people.  ... ...  gently caress it, we're going with the Thieves' Guild option. Vichan fucked around with this message at 12:03 on Nov 7, 2021 |
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May 27, 2021 21:27
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I apologise for wasting everyone's time, I really thought this'd be interesting. Spellhold had better be full of Sandrah content, that's all I'm gonna say. EDIT: I'm thinking my Spellhold party will consist of Vichan Sandrah Chloe Yoshimo Korgan Wilson Vichan fucked around with this message at 21:47 on May 27, 2021 |
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May 27, 2021 21:30
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Ugh, and i thought this bit was a slog with even just one of the paths. indeed. It couldn't be that hard to change that one npc into something else, even if it's painfully obvious that all the routes are going to lead to the same outcome! I'm holding out for more Wilson content, personally. 
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May 27, 2021 22:54
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Vichan posted:...Is this a Chloe-specific thing? It is! Bear in mind that prior to Sandrah, Chloe was the standard by which all overpowered bullshit sue mods were judged.
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May 27, 2021 23:03
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Regarding Aran showing up after the alternative routes, I think it must be a bug, perhaps a mod conflict somewhere. Valen being an NPC brings back memories, that really is an old mod.
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May 27, 2021 23:23
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I have just caught up with this amazing thread. Thank you Vichan for suffering this in full so we can suffer a little bit less.
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May 27, 2021 23:27
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I am a little confused, as someone who hasn't seen the Bodhi path in an eternity. Bodhi says the Shadow Thieves wanted you captured in exchange for something Irenicus wanted? Why would that even be a thing? What would a bunch of thieves do with you? It seems more likely that they wanted something and Irenicus asked for your capture in exchange. I assume she's just lying, but still, it would be a weird lie to give AFTER we've killed Aran Linvail. It's more likely that Aran is telling the truth, except he doesn't realize Mae'Var's outside-of-the-guild work means the Thieves Guild technically was involved in the capture. PS: I took a look at Alternatives out of curiosity and woo, you did not miss much with the Maztica one. Surprise, Malficus was working for Bodhi, he just has Saemon drop you off at Brynnlaw anyway. And the Paladin route was apparently SUPPOSED to be a nothing route for someone who just wants to off the Shadow Thieves and the Vampires and be on their way. Midnight Voyager fucked around with this message at 04:02 on May 28, 2021 |
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May 28, 2021 03:50
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I just joined SA because of this thread (and Syvishtar nostalgia). I'm a whore for BG and almost anything that adds new content. I have tried three times to play through Sandrah Saga and quit three times for reasons ranging from technical issues to disgust with Sandrah Sue. Thank you Vichan for doing this and saving me a fourth failed attempt. I really hope you make it to the post ToB portion, I'm craving the nonstop trainwreck. In my current playthrough I took Sandrah along up to completion of her first Waterdeep quest in BG1 and then used a cursed scroll to petrify her and leave her stony buns at the stone circles where I first met her. I'm now in SoD and don't miss her. Neither does Elminster!
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May 28, 2021 05:49
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Vichan posted:I'm thinking my Spellhold party will consist of Since Wilson's way of entering Spellhold isn't functioning properly I'm replacing him with Valygar, it's a pity I only realised this just as I had entered Spellhold but oh well. RatchedB52 posted:I just joined SA because of this thread (and Syvishtar nostalgia). I'm a whore for BG and almost anything that adds new content. I have tried three times to play through Sandrah Saga and quit three times for reasons ranging from technical issues to disgust with Sandrah Sue. Thank you Vichan for doing this and saving me a fourth failed attempt. I really hope you make it to the post ToB portion, I'm craving the nonstop trainwreck. Welcome!
Vichan fucked around with this message at 11:02 on May 28, 2021 |
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May 28, 2021 10:59
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RatchedB52 posted:In my current playthrough I took Sandrah along up to completion of her first Waterdeep quest in BG1 and then used a cursed scroll to petrify her and leave her stony buns at the stone circles where I first met her. I'm now in SoD and don't miss her. Neither does Elminster! Glorious Good to know Roxanne couldn't predict every possible attempt to get rid of her lovely sue.
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May 28, 2021 13:52
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If you bring wilson does the silver dragon glam him to look like a drow too because that would be real funny
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May 28, 2021 20:17
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Wow that was underwhelming. I can respect the third option of "just kill both factions and get shipped off anyways" but that Malficus is one mother fucker, promising a cool adventure and offering... that.
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May 28, 2021 20:28
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Ramc posted:If you bring wilson does the silver dragon glam him to look like a drow too Or she could just make him look like a black bear, that would also be pretty funny
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May 28, 2021 21:35
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