Part 30

We rejoin our adventurers in Luskan, after a short trip up the coast.



"Well, this festering cesspool hasn't improved since the last time we were here."

"Based on our last visit, I don't expect anything out of the Captains' Court or any of the High Captains. We might as well just cut to the chase and head to the tower."



"What do you want?!"

"We're looking for a friend of ours… blond girl, about so high. Has she been through here?"

"What makes you think I would tell you if she had?"

"It would give you an opportunity to taunt us from a safe place, and know that we'd have a hell of a time getting to you."

"Good point. Nope, no girls like that in here. Did you check the old quarter?"

"Not yet, but thank you. You've been strangely helpful for someone from Luskan."

"Are we sure we can trust him? Maybe we'd better…"

"Let's pick the low hanging fruit first. If she's not there, we can try to storm the castle."

"Are you guys done out there? We don't abide loitering outside the Host Tower."



"This is actually a pretty positive sign."

"Maybe the guard at the tower has some enemies down here, and figured that the fastest way to deal with them was to send us their way."



Stone Golems and sorceresses and some hapless guards. The guards are easily dealt with, and with the Sword of Stonecutting we can wreck the stone golems in a single turn. The sorceresses aren't even that bad, since there's only two of them.



"The prisoner isn't going to have to escape by the time we're done and you're all dead. Hold on Siulajia!"

"That shouting is going to be really embarrassing if that turns out to be another hapless person the Luskans went ahead and abducted."



If anything, this fight is even easier than the last one. The black robed figures are clerics who use Hold Person, but the group is pretty well structured for a fireball to the rear to damage everybody. The longest holdouts are likely to be the Margoyles.



"This is sweet and all, but why did they even bother to grab her in the first place? It makes no sense."





"Wait, your family? Was that what this was all about?"

"Maybe? They talked about my family but they never said anything I could pin down as true or false."



"They're not the first ones to take an unwholesome interest in you, either. There was that mage back when we first met too."

"So you think that could have had something to do with it as well? It's a bit too late to ask any questions about that now, though."



"Oh… umm… nice to meet you? I don't believe we've been introduced, but if you're that intent on getting home…"

"Actually, we should all be getting out of here. I don't think that we'll remain undisturbed for long. We've still got that other island to visit yet as well."



"I think maybe I'll just ask for bread and water so that I don't get used to better treatment onboard ships."

"Take it from somebody who's been locked up before: you should enjoy good food when you have a chance."






"Looks like we might have been just a bit late to stop things from getting out of hand."

"Couldn't be helped. On the other hand, it'll make more of an impact settling a full scale battle than stopping one before it starts."





"Apparently they don't have Alaric's keen eye for telling the difference between actual soldiers from Waterdeep and imposters."

"We'll have to make sure he's the one who explains it to the Tyrant. Speaking of which, do we know where he lives?"



"Something tells me it won't be hard to figure out."



"We're adventurers, and we're here to help."

"The most terrifying seven words in the common tongue! I must let you pass immediately."



"Er… you do realize that we had to walk here from the docks, right? We've already seen quite a lot of Mintarn."

"You're trying my patience already, and I'm short enough on that as it is."





"Could you hold off on that war for a bit? We're pretty sure these soldiers aren't from Waterdeep."

"They're obviously too slovenly and incompetent to be actual soldiers from Waterdeep. This place would be in flames already if that was the case."

"If you love Waterdeep so much, why don't you marry it? Anyway, do you have any proof of this?"

"Not yet. We're planning to go down to the docks and kick ass until we find something."

"Works for me. I can't organize my war until that's taken care of anyway."



"Thanks for the warning. Aren't you supposed to try and stop us or something?"

"Nah, Fred over at the castle told me about you guys. I figure that you'll either fail spectacularly, succeed spectacularly, or burn the entire place down and since there's nothing down here except for merchant warehouses I don't really care."




"Hmm… left or right?"

"The fort first. It looks like that's a flag from Waterdeep, which means that they've taken it as their headquarters."



"I'm suddenly reminded of a certain story about three bears…"

"…and she's still here."



"I'm killing weaklings, obviously. What else would I be doing?"





"I really don't understand it, either. We've killed literally hundreds of them so I don't know where they keep getting recruits."

"It sounds to me as though we are fighting for the same cause, as we did a short time ago in Gundarlun. Will you have me as a member of your party once again?"

"We'd be fools to object, although… Siulajia, could you go stand next to Jagaerda for a moment?"

"You're right! They do look more than a bit alike, don't they? Could the Luskans have just gotten confused since we've traveled with both of them in the islands and kidnapped the wrong person?"

"If that's the case, I'm going to make a special point of kicking their asses when we go back to Luskan. It's even more insulting if they didn't even know who I was."

"Ha! If you were mistaken for a princess, then it is a compliment!"



We get to use Jagaerda for the next few fights, and she's beefed up considerably in the two to three months since we last saw her. If you remember from last game she was level four, and has thus essentially doubled her level since the last time we saw her. One thing of note, however, is that her charisma is literally superhuman.. normal max for a human is 18. At this rate, Gundarlun might end up ruling the islands.



"They've been here for days, at most… how did they manage to make the place so filthy in such a short amount of time?"

"And we somehow end up as the housecleaning crew every time… although I think we make more of a mess than we clean up."



"We probably just saved him from being squashed by a giant in a fit of casual irritation… although the outcome is going to be the same."



For this fight there are a considerable variety of giants in several different groups. it's a good spread, but as long as you deal with the few fire giant magic users it's not that big of a problem.



"Efreets! If these and the giants had joined the fighting outside, the guards wouldn't have had a chance."



There are actually a few more giants and another efreet offscreen where we can't see them. This is a large enough battle, but the giants are lower caliber than the ones we were dealing with a minute ago. This is the last fight in the fortress, so it's time to move on to the warehouses.



"Wow, they've got to be really short on entertainment. I wonder if that's a fire giant skeleton they're using?"

"I wouldn't put it past them, but in all likelihood it's from another type of giant and thus considered acceptable. Giants are a bit odd that way."

"Less talking, more chopping!"



"Gentlemen, gentlemen, let me settle this for you. Everything in the sack belongs to us. As soon as we're done killing you."

"It's technically plundering, and that's okay."



"Is there no end to these confounded warehouses?"

"Er… right down at the end of the block? I can see the last two from here."



"Those efreet are certainly getting around… they're really taking a risk of fire in here."

"You are quite literally the last person I expected to ever talk about fire safety."

"It's an entirely different matter when I'm the one inside the building."



"I think I can see why the Luskans are so upset with their hired giants. It looks like an uphill battle to actually get them to do anything."

"I guess it's true all over… good help really is hard to find."



"If this is a bad time, we can come back in five minutes."

"It would save us all some time if you didn't bother to get up… well, never mind. Looks like you're in a hurry."



As you can guess from the fact that the enemies aren't just standing around doing nothing when we burst in, this is the final battle in the warehouse set. They made a token attempt at making it suitably difficult and epic, but failed miserably by putting all the enemies in a narrow hallway where two fireballs can wipe out 90% of them.



"I think you mean where the monsters were… but either way, the Tyrant needs to see this."



"You've been gone a couple of hours. Trust me, I haven't forgotten."



"I hope that gesture doesn't mean you're disappointed that you won't have the war you were planning."

"So the Krakens and the buffoons from Luskan think they can trick the Tryant into helping them, do they? I'll them who plays the tricks on Mintarn!"



"A… trident… we'll treasure it and think of you next time we go fishing?"

"Yes, I think we're done here."



"We kind of already visited Orlumbor. It ended up with the local leadership being branded with a red hot iron."

"Farewell, friends. I know that our enemies have plans in Orlumbor and Ruathym, so perhaps I'll see you there if our paths cross again in pursuit of justice and the good."

"Goodbye Jagaerda, you're kind of like the sister I never had and didn't know I wanted that got me kidnapped by fanatics."



"Zanros, what are you so depressed about? Nobody got kidnapped this time."

"I don't know… force of habit? The sea is weird that way."

Character Snapshot





With Zanros and The Dude getting their levels they've both reached the maximum as magic users and won't be picking up any more spells or spell levels. This game tops you out at 5th level spells. Siulajia picked up another level while she was gone but did so by trading all of her equipment. Unlike every other time when someone in this game is taken captive this is the one time when they take somebody's equipment. For that reason, it's probably not the best idea to put anything really valuable on her until this point. I lost a few items, but nothing outrageously good.

Next Update: Yartar and Triboar