Completed Let's solo Baldur's Gate 2 on Insane (feat. The Codex)

[T(D?)-Bag]

Since my previous vote, Yoshimo's quest got axed, I'm changing it to Illithids.

 

[Aeschylus]

Since my previous vote, Yoshimo's quest got axed, I'm changing it to Illithids.

Already doing Illithids next, so change it again.

I guess I vote for finishing up the minor stuff around Athkatla (aka Edwin's Quest now, it seems).

 

[Abelian]

I vote for the Edwin/bonus quest, too.

 

[Sodafish]

Yeah may as well finish up the small stuff before the main story. I vote Edwin/bonus shit too.

 

[MicoSelva]

Since my previous vote, Yoshimo's quest got axed, I'm changing it to Illithids.

Already doing Illithids next, so change it again.

Yes, we're voting what to do after Illithids now.

 

[Rivmusique]

I'm not entirely sure what fallen paladins stand for

I think it's a quest that's given to you by the Order of the Radiant Heart. From what I remember, it's not very long or very interesting.


Anyway, I'm voting for the Main Quest.

You just have to infiltrate then fight some fallen paladins in the northeast corner of the Bridge District. In order to increase its length, the devs added a fetch quest in the middle.

Don't forget the C&C though. Be honourable and fight fewer enemies.

You do remember who the protagonist is, right?

Joking aside, thanks for reminding me; I forgot that part.

I don't get it, how do you fight fewer enemies?

Looking that quest up, I never noticed the first fallen paladins name: Reynald de Chatillon.

I vote for Edwin/bonus quest.

 

[Abelian]

I don't get it, how do you fight fewer enemies?

Looking that quest up, I never noticed the first fallen paladins name: Reynald de Chatillon.

I vote for Edwin/bonus quest.

You can choose to not kill all the fallen paladins:

Spoiler

It is not actually necessary to kill the second-in-command Reynald, who seems like a nice enough guy who was booted from paladinhood for an extramarital affair rather than evildoing. If you offer to join the Fallen Paladins Anarg will expose you and you'll have to kill them all. If you decline, Anarg will attack you for no reason and Reynald will get disillusioned and quit. The first way gives you an XP bonus, the second lets Reynald go free. It's up to you. If you have Keldorn with you, violence will ensue without giving you a choice in the matter.

Source

Reynald de Chatillon (the historical character) also stars in Age of Empires II, during the Saladin campaign.

 

[Storyfag]

I vote for wrapping minor sidequests up before continuing with the main quest.

 

[ALchymist]

You can choose to not kill all the fallen paladins:

Spoiler

It is not actually necessary to kill the second-in-command Reynald, who seems like a nice enough guy who was booted from paladinhood for an extramarital affair rather than evildoing. If you offer to join the Fallen Paladins Anarg will expose you and you'll have to kill them all. If you decline, Anarg will attack you for no reason and Reynald will get disillusioned and quit. The first way gives you an XP bonus, the second lets Reynald go free. It's up to you. If you have Keldorn with you, violence will ensue without giving you a choice in the matter.

Source

Quite so. By the time I get round to this quest, I usually take the (slightly more) honourable route as my OCD won't let me pass it up but the combat and whole quest is just tedious. Probably better suited to evil parties who need to get their rep up a bit and what are they doing siding with paladins?

 

[Somberlain]

They get killed very quickly by the intelligence drain ability though.

I recommend installing aTweaks. Among other great PnP tweaks, it has a component which makes skeletons and other brainless creatures immune to brain devouring. Kinda makes sense.

 

[MicoSelva]

I'm not installing anything else to the build I have. If I have to The Codex has to die 100 times because of various glitches and rules inconsistencies, so be it.

 

[ALchymist]

The Codex has to die 100 times.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Only 100 times yet? What a humble number....
Anyway - installing anything when you start game is obviously not best idea.
There is nothing worse than some bugs (and no way to get back due saves borked) after dozen of hours.

 

[MicoSelva]

Only 100 times yet? What a humble number....

Not sure what you mean, our current Death Count is 201. The 100 was just a random example.

 

[ALchymist]

Only 100 times yet? What a humble number....

Not sure what you mean, our current Death Count is 201. The 100 was just a random example.

I know, but I could only quote out of context from what I was given.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I misspelled it, should be "yet only 100 kaputs in the future".
See you guys soon!

 

[MicoSelva]

Last time on Let's Insane Solo Baldur's Gate 2:

I think that The Codex taking his first step on the journey to EPICLAND was the most notable thing that happened in the previous update.

I rarely agree with you, but this time, I do.
------

Update #42: Mummies, Loons and Pantaloons

Spoiler

The Codex and his midget sidekick return to the lower tombs after a short side-trip to the temple of level restoration.

Stop running ahead like that, you're making me look bad in front of the audience.

I'm not sure if I should consider this funny, disturbing or pathetic.

Curiously, the other hand is not trapped.

My keen senses tell me we should go this way.

Mummy, is that you?

Korgan gets pretty beaten up.

Better him than me.

Battle log here claims that The Codex is 'Attacking Shadow'.

That's a pretty cool nickname, although Killer Shadow or Shadow Master of The Universe would be even better.

I think we've stumbled upon some kind of shadow convention.

Dammit, Korgan, don't tell me you've let yourself be sucked of levels AGAIN.

Just one level, it seems.

We can live with that.

Some loot. Magical arrows are just vendortrash now, btw.

*jesus christ, how many more trap comments do they expect me to write in this LP, maybe I should start skipping the screenshots with traps altogether - food for thought for later*

Sounds like a great idea.

Omfg, an undead. Who would have expected.

Hey, it dropped something.

I think we should have come here sooner. Not that it would make all this trash any more useful, but I would have been slightly less disappointed with finding it.

After you.

*smack*

Get them, cyberdwarf!

Bullseye!

It wasn't even a critical hit.

Cut me some slack, I barely ever get to kill something with a bow and arrow nowadays.

True enough.

Watch out, there's more.

You must be confusing me with that chick from Kotor 2, because I am not blind.

I think we're working pretty well together, Korgan.

Is this where I get my Grave Defiler trait?

Wrong game. Besides, you would have gotten it ages ago.

Really? I mean, seriously. A +1 dagger, WTF.

This is more like trash collecting than grave robbing tomb raiding.

A level one spell...

...which we actually did not have.

Poor man's mirror image, which is saying A LOT.

Hold yer horses...

Freeze!

I like how even Korgan does not give a fuck about the mummy's threats.

Who will win this deadly struggle? Bets are off.

Three seconds later.

I feel rather backseated in this quest, barely even get to say something.

Just indulge Korgan in his minute of glory. After all, we will never see him again afterwards.

You might want to stop for a moment there, before onwarding any further, Korgan.

Hey, there's more undead here. Get them!

And once again The Codex alone has to hold the line against the advancing decline darkness.

And we win, but you already knew that of course.

Cursed or useless? That is the question.

The latter, it seems.

What potion is this?

Defense. We can actually use this at some point.

If I did not know better, I would think The Codex has been here already.

Our buddy Korgan mentioned checking out Pimlico's place, so let's do that.

To be honest I can barely understand what you're saying.

I hate unlootable corpses.

At least the owner's paranoia did not save his life. This makes me feel a little warmer inside.

Potions, always nice to find.

Korgan's dialogue, which did not trigger, was supposed to tell us that his ex-teammates are around Copper Coronet, so this is where we go next.

And indeed, they are there.

I have no idea what they're talking about, so I will focus on what I am good at.

Killing everyone with a red circle around their feet.

Watch out, they've got a caster.

I'm sure cowled wizards will take care of him in a moment.

That's one dead crazyface there.

Korgan takes matters in his own hands and dispatches Shagbag.

Scrooloose? As in loose screws? These guys must have been an interesting bunch.

Don't mind if I do.

The Book of Kaza, aka 'Everything Men Know About Women'. All the pages are blank.

And it is indeed worth a nice sum in gold.

Unfortunately, we now need to bid farewell to the angry video game dwarf.

Good luck on your... standing around here, I guess? It was surprisingly handy to have you around, but you have to go now. Such is the way of The Codex.

Forever alone.

We use the opportunity to pick up a few items from our stash.

Carsomyr is [UNDERSTATEMENT]a pretty potent weapon[/UNDERSTATEMENT]. It deals 1d12+5 damage (6 to 17) which is downright incredible when compared to Staff of the Magi's 1d6+1 (2 to 7).

Dialogue does not specify that, but we are improving Paladin's Bracers here.

The upgrade does not do anything for us, as Resurrection is useless in solo play, and I will forget to cast Cure Critical Wounds anyway (not-upgraded Paladin's Bracers already give the +10 HP bonus, which is what we're after), but OCD is OCD. These will replace Bracers of Archery and should serve us well, until we get Wondrous Gloves on our hands (pun intended).

Back to the usual business in the catacombs.

29 damage from a single hit is a nice upgrade from the usual ~15 Codex was dealing previously.

I'd say!

We're still not done with traps in this place, it seems.

The one huge advantage of the staff was it made The Codex invisible at will. Hide in Shadows is somewhat a substitute, although much less convenient to use.

Decapitaaaaation!

Inside the cave, we meet this peaceful drow druid chick.

There is at least one oxymoron in that sentence.

The rest of the conversation(s) can be found under spoiler below.

Spoiler

Yeah, well, I totally did not kill ANY spiders on my way here. Nope, none whatsoever.

Sure... Wait, did I just agreed to help you without any promise of being paid? Why exactly did I do that?

You were always a sucker for a pretty face.

Spider's Bane...? The name sounds kind of familiar.

Okay...

Right.

It seems that everyone here is PERFECTLY FINE.

Yup. Time to go, I think.

Hey, this stuff looks interesting.

My own spider minions! How cool is that!

I never learned to use this spell properly, to be honest.

Both are learned, because why not.

I briefly considered switching this for the ever-present Helm of Balduran, but apparently +10% HP is less than the +5 HP, which the helmet provides (???), so there is no point.

Let's see what you've got in your pocket, lady. Just in case you weren't planning to pay me after all.

Nice! Not exactly Guenhwyvar, but still pretty cool.

Hey, uglies! Haven't you heard we're on the same side now?

Guess not.

Like I would have any trouble like that. Boo, railroading!

Having exhausted stuff to do here, let's go somewhere else.

Like the bridge district.

Busted!

He probably should not have left the door open.

After that they kill Am-Si and run away.

The Codex immediately rushes after them.

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger!

Wow. I did not expect the need to dust ye olde death count off for this update.

Death Count: 202

Loading.

That was bad, but at least I can employ employ genuine great vengeance and furious anger when we try again.

We pick a different dialogue option and this time Camitis stays behind and Codex fights kills him inside the building.

Reti dies outside.

Are these boots of avoidance I see on your feet? I think they are!

Back inside the building, The Codex unleashes full extent of his charm on the kidnappers' victim.

Aha!

Everybody treats copper coronet as some kind of shady bad guy tavern.

Because it is?

Watch your mouth! I stay there a lot!

Oh, wait...

Since we cannot collect ransom before nightfall, let's do the other chore quest first.

Remember these two guys? We were wondering about their purpose when we visited these sewers at some point in the past.

Check the dialogue (or not) under the spoiler.

Spoiler

Great success!

I would be angry to see my old trusty sword broken like this, but Carsomyr.

75 gold for 15K XP. Pretty good conversion rate there.

We also got this. Not sure if it's a one-use item or what.

We advance the time a bit, so it's after sundown.

What do you mean, no gold?

Our inventory space problems come back with a vengeance.

What.

Stay calm, we actually wanted these.

We did?

Indulging in this little endeavour has cost us two points of reputation. No biggie, and definitely worth it.

---

Next time: The Codex will do his best to get his brains sucked out.

Brains NOT sucked out, you mean?

Sure, sure.

Next quest selection details:

Spoiler

We'll roll after next update. Votes so far:

1. Main Quest - Shadow Thieves [ALchymist]
2. Main Quest - Shadow Thieves [Bilgefar]
3. Edwin/Fallen Paladins/bonus [t]
4. Main Quest - Shadow Thieves [Erebus]
5. Edwin/Fallen Paladins/bonus [Aeschylus]
6. Edwin/Fallen Paladins/bonus [Abelian]
7. Edwin/Fallen Paladins/bonus [Sodafish]
8. Edwin/Fallen Paladins/bonus [Rivmusique]
9. Edwin/Fallen Paladins/bonus [Storyfag]
10. Illithids in Athktatla [T(D?)-Bag] - already under way

 

[Insane Psychic]

I'm gonna go with Edwin/Fallen Paladins/bonus as well.

 

[Aeschylus]

Good stuff!

And the main use for Spell Immunity is to make you immune to Abjuration, which makes it impossible for high level casters/dragons/whatever to dispell your protections. Quite handy in ToB actually.

 

[Sodafish]

Wow, I had no idea about that quest for Pai'Nai. Cool.

 

[Aeschylus]

^ It's part of Unfinished Business, and not in the main game.

 

[MicoSelva]

Yes, and this quest is still very much an unfinished business IMO, because it just screams for an alternate path - repairing Spider's Bane, and coming back to kick drow ass with it, but no such thing is possible.

 

[Sodafish]

^ It's part of Unfinished Business, and not in the main game.

Ah right, that makes more sense then

 

[Baron Dupek]

Aw jiys, dat wus git.
Vote go to the Edwin/Fallen Paladins/bonus.

 

[Azira]

Next installment of Watcher's keep.