[New post] It’s Definitely Not Safe to Go Back in the Water
Feminina O'Ladybrain posted: " Spoilers for some side quests in Baldur's Gate Man, when was the last time I said "I got nothing?" I'm into this game! Anyway, played. Found a place with a lighthouse. It had a name like "Sea watcher" which I thought sounded more like a boat" Play First. Talk Later.
Man, when was the last time I said "I got nothing?" I'm into this game!
Anyway, played. Found a place with a lighthouse. It had a name like "Sea watcher" which I thought sounded more like a boat you'd find doing cheesy tourist whale watch cruises than something in a cool game, but whatever. Found a fortune teller. You find her? Found this thief who was all "Find my treasure and I can repay you in all sorts of ways..." slutty, and I was all "Nah, I'm good." Well, recruited her, saw her measly stats, switched back out to my paladin who really is kicking some major ass. Tried to find the beach and the lighthouse, but that meant going through these three or four sirens, and they killed the fuck out of me. Actually, they cast something that made my party kill the hell out of each other, but whatever. I'll go back there later.
Went somewhere else and ran right the fuck into Basillius! Dealt with Basilius.
That wasn't so bad at all! Took me two tries. I think I must've picked good dialog options because all of his undead friends didn't do anything. They just chilled. After the fight, they were just conversation options all just saying "Hurrgh."
Anyway, did that, got the reward, went back to town to sell necklaces and buy potions and stuff, hit save.
Doing Brage (who killed his family when he was cursed) and Basilius (who killed to replace his family) has me pondering family themes in this game. Game doesn't have a great view of family, does it? We lose our father figure and here we are with our quasisister. Our dreams have us pushed away from family and being chased/running towards something awful to replace it.
I find it interesting that, in all of that, the game gives us a married couple (I googled, they are married) to travel with so early, and pushes us to keep them in the party. I'd be curious to travel with Minsc and Dynahier more to see if that also gave some counterbalance, if there were going to be themes there, but I can't fit them in the party. Have you spent a lot of time with them?
I'm pondering family.
Feminina:
That's where I just was!
Man, those sirenes are brutal, aren't they? They killed the hell out of us repeatedly, or made us kill the hell out of each other, as you say. We left them alone for now.
Bassilus was really not so bad. We got him in one try, just blasting him before he could even do anything, and most of his skeletons just stood around for us too, although we had to go back and antagonize them later so we could kill them, because his holy symbol wasn't on his body for some reason -- I grabbed all the loot without really looking, then when we got back to the temple all "we have slain Bassilus!" the guy said "well, if you DID kill him that's very impressive, but I'm going to need some proof before I pay you."
One of the skeletons apparently had it, because once we killed them all, it showed up as loot. Probably a glitch, no big deal, but a bit of a delay. And a bit of bad news for the skeletons and zombies we would have otherwise left alone since they weren't bothering anyone. But hey, we need to get paid so we can...continue to wander around killing things...
Also I checked, and I'm afraid I inflated our level -- I thought we must be 5 or 6 by now, but no, we're all 4 except Jeheira, who's level 4 druid AND level 4 fighter, but I guess that doesn't count as 8 because she's not twice as tough as the rest of us. I don't understand how multi-classing worked in 2nd edition. Did each class level up separately, and get to count all the XP? If so, presumably there are restrictions on which of the benefits of each class you can use, or everyone would do it because why not?
I don't know—whatever. I could look it up, but I admit I don't actually care that much as long as the game is keeping track of it for me. The odds of me ever playing 2nd edition outside this context are extremely low. Anyway, the point is, we're basically all 4th level.
Family is a good theme to ponder...
I dumped Minsc and Dynaheir at the first opportunity because Dynaheir was driving me bonkers, so I haven't spent much time with them, and probably will not, but I am interested in the way that several of your possible companions come as sets like that: Khalid and Jaheira, Minsc and Dynaheir, and Montaron and Xzar (that I've met so far). They won't split up, so you have to take them both if you want one of them. That definitely suggests some kind of story about the importance of connections (romantic or otherwise), which can be another way to say 'family.'
I've never left one half of a pair dead (I've never left ANY companion dead), but I wonder what the survivor would do if one of them was gone? Will they still travel with you? Moping all the time?
Butch:
Ooo! That's a good question. I don't know! I save people.
I didn't spend any time with Dynahier. What was with her?
That sucks about the skeletons. Must've been a glitch, cuz Basilius had his symbol last night. I'm going to go back there and poke around, see what's up. There must be more! Or some dogs to kill to get XP.
I take it you found the fortune teller and the suggestive thief? What did you do with all that?
The "couples" are interesting. I'm rather surprised it lets you dump Imoen. Maybe two thieves is too many.
Problem is, I'm blurring my THEMES here with what I remember from game 2. Must be careful.
Feminina:
I have not met a fortune teller or a suggestive thief. There are a lot of people in different places in this game! I'll keep an eye out for them.
Oh, Dynaheir... My issue with Dynaheir is super petty, and yet also utterly maddening to me. I suppose it's also a timely one for this modern age, in that I have a problem with her use of pronouns. Ha!
Specifically, the archaic second person pronoun 'thy.'
In her canned dialogue rotation, she has this line, "thy called?" Presumably it's meant to be an old-fashioned way of saying "you called," but "thy" doesn't mean YOU, it means YOUR.
Like, "here is thy share of the loot for that battle, Dynaheir."
The line should be "thou called," except that verbs also conjugate differently when using thee/thou/thy/thine, so really it should be something like "thou called'st?" which is kind of awkward, or more elegantly "thou didst call?" which is longer.
And obviously almost no-one knows or cares about this, and I don't expect anyone to, but if you've read enough of Shakespeare and/or the King James Bible to have really internalized these forms, it sounds EXACTLY like she's saying "your called?" every time she says that line, and she says it regularly, and I just can't take it.
I can't!
Butch:
Those two are in the lighthouse area. East of the deadly Sirenes. There's someone else there, too. Check it out. Just, don't get too close to the sirenes.
[Long pause]
Oh.
You have now ruined the character of Dynaheir for me, as well.
Though, these days, one can really use whatever pronoun one wants for anything, really. "They" is no longer plural, except when it is.
Let's go back to thee/thou/thine. You have it down.
Every time a kid yells "DAD!" from now on, I'm gonna say "Thou didst call?" They'll stop yelling in no time.
Feminina:
I apologize for utterly ruining Dynaheir for you.
And it's true, one may be called on to use pretty much any third-person pronoun these days, but 'you' and 'your' haven't really changed.
Clearly, it's past time we did something about that! Bring back 'thee' and 'thy'!
Also, the royal 'we' should be employed by a lot more people.
Butch:
By "more people" you mean "us."
Except there are two of us, so if we say "we like this game" it's just normal.
Damn it.
Feminina:
Argh, you're right.
I mean, thou art right.
Butch:
Yeah, man, get it right.
I mean, milady, do phrase thy words correctly.
Or thine?
Fuck, I didn't read enough Shakespeare.
Feminina:
Nah, thou art good. 'Thy' is generally before consonants, 'thine' before vowels, like "thy words make thine oath" or whatever. You've probably read enough Shakespeare.
Butch:
Good because I'm too busy playing games, blogging and selling crap to do any reading more advanced than back of album copy from 1961.
Oh no.....
I just grabbed more off of Freecycle.
A couple of VHS tapes.
This is how THAT begins.
Help.
Feminina:
Dude, do you even have a VCR to see if those play? I know we don't have one anymore.
Butch:
Dude, these are unopened.
Who WATCHES these things?
Does our friend use all those clocks to tell time? No. Do the people who buy the playbills wonder who is in the show they certainly aren't watching cuz it was 60 years ago? No. Does whoever bought that Cinderella record vibe out to Snorpy the Seal? I hope not.
These are unopened, man! Those go for more money!
(I don't understand it, either)
Feminina:
Well, all right then. You're the gnome merchant expert.
Butch:
I do not make explanations for my dedicated customers.
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