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CHAPTER 1 | CHAPTER 2 | CHAPTER 3 | CHAPTER 4 | CHAPTER 5 | CHAPTER 6 | CHAPTER 7 | CHAPTER 8 | CHAPTER 9 | CHAPTER 10 | |
JAHEIRA'S QUESTS
Jahaboam
Here I fulfill one of the necessary steps for the Jaheira romance. I go south and then west for a bit until I find a merchant named Jahaboam. I purchase a trinket from him as a gift for Jaheira. I then take the opportunity to sell off my excess loot.
Cromwell's Smithy
Next I go to Cromwell's Smithy. Here is where you can get your usual custom-made items available in vanilla BG2. Cromwell will also be the guy to see for anyone who wants the custom made items available under the Item Upgrade mod put together.
A word of advice. The Item Upgrade mod places significant strain on your ability to spend gold, depending on what your plans are. This is not just because Cromwell often demands hefty fees for putting the items together, but also because some of the more valuable jewels are required as ingredients for some of the items. So, one limitation that should be observed is that you should avoid buying expensive items from stores until you've had the opportunity to increase your reputation so as to cause the prices to drop significantly. Until that happens, spend your gold on the item upgrades instead, since the fees remain the same no matter what your reputation.
Here's what I had put together during this trip:
Prebek and Sanasha
Now I go west until I reach the bottom of some stairs east of the Harper Hold. I speak with a Necromancer named Xzar, who wants me to investigate the Harper Hold to find out what happened to his Halfling spy, Montaron. This quest is also necessary for the completion of Jaheira's romance.
I go to the entrance to the Harper Hold and speak with Rylock. His condition for allowing me entry is that I kill a couple of foul necromancers who are breeding monsters in Athkatla.
The Necromancers in question, Prebek and Sanasha, are in a building towards the northwest part of the Docks District. They're easily taken care of after Keldorn brings down their protections with a Dispel Magic. Their monster minions easily follow. They leave behind some spell scrolls. Imoen also loots the chests for some more spell scrolls, a Warhammer +1, and a +1 Scimitar, Shezallim (Bards must save vs. death at -4 or die instantly).
I then report my success to Rylock for 14,500xp, and the privilege of entering the Harper Hold.
Xzar
Now I enter the Harper Hold. The east rooms are the chief area of interest on the first level. The chests holds some odds and ends, while the chest towards the northeast corner holds a Harper Amulet. This amulet will be needed to safely access the second level.
On the second level will be Spectral Harpists, who permit only those possessing a Harper Amulet to pass. Imoen makes the rounds, looting chests for magical ammunition, spell scrolls, and various bits of treasure.
The chest to the southwest holds a note that hints Montaron may have magically been turned into a bird as a punishment for breaking in. Towards the northeast is a very large cage with a tree within. A character needs to be able to get right close to the tree to get the Harper Bird in the party's inventory.
I now return to Xzar. I sleep first, and this prompts a dream whereby a vision of Queen Ellesime bids me to find Irenicus in the Elven city of Suldanessellar for my own sake.
I then inform Xzar of my discovery, and everyone in the party gets 35,500xp. Only the Harper Bird turns out to be a Harper assassin who kills Xzar. Xzar leaves behind a few spell scrolls (which I reinscribe while Jaheira is still in the party), a Bracers of A.C. 6, and a Staff Spear +2.
Once this is over I immediately have Avastrian, Jaheira, and Imoen put up their Stone(Iron)skins in anticipation of an upcoming fight. Another Harper named Meronia soon arrives, and has Jaheira temporarily leave the party.
Galvarey
Now the party rests. Jaheira returns to the party, and urges me to return to the Harper Hold with her. I comply with the request, but not without throwing in a few buffs beforehand.
The party soon finds itself surrounded by several Harpers, with their leader Galvarey leading an interrogation/witch hunt against me. As long as I have a decent reputation, Jaheira will side with me in the inevitable combat. The fight is easy enough to win with standard techniques.
Keldorn uses True Seeing to keep both the enemy Mages and the Dwarven Thief honest. Jaheira aims an Insect Plague at Galvarey, but a limitation of the spell soon shows itself. It only spreads out to a certain radius from the first enemy that gets hit with it. In this instance it only catches one Mage but not the other, who walked out of its range. Anomen and Minsc try to Silence the other one, while Avastrian and Imoen unleash their Chaos and Slow combination.
Avastrian eventually neutralizes the other Mage by hitting it with Breach, and then running up to the Mage. Once my plans have been realized, it becomes a simple matter of hacking down the enemies one by one.
The available loot will include two Bracers of A.C. 6, a Katana +1, a Plate Mail +1, a Shortsword +1, a Two-Handed Sword +1, a Quarterstaff +1, a Cloak of Protection +1, and a Ring of Wizard (extra 5th, 6th, and 7th level spells), which will be one of Imoen's rings for the rest of the game for obvious reasons.
Baron Ployer
This quest is not specifically required for Jaheira's romance, but it does involve her. Now I head over to the Sea's Bounty Tavern and enter its lower floor. To make it short, Jaheira has a magical curse put on her by an old nemesis, Baron Ployer. It already starts off by putting a -1 penalty on her physical attributes, and it can kill her if it's allowed to do its work long enough to reduce any of her attributes to 0.
There's a number of ways you can go about it. First, I head over to Corneil in the Government District, who blows me off when I inquire about Mages dressed in green and black. Once I step back outside of the government building, a Mage named Terrece shows up. I could reject his offer and kill the Mage and Baron Ployer when the time comes. The ol' hit 'em right away tactic that worked in vanilla BG2 won't work in SCS, cause they'll show up pre-buffed. But it nonetheless remains winnable, especially if I can catch them all with an Insect Plague. Nonetheless I prefer to give Terrece his 1,000gp so he won't show up to help the Baron. I get 10,500xp for this, which is roughly the same as if I killed them all anyway.
I then inquire about Belgrade and Baron Ployer at the Copper Coronet to get some information. This leads me to the Derelict House near the northeast corner of the Slums District. Once inside, Baron Ployer attempts to summon the Mages, but they're conspicuously absent. Jaheira kills Ployer herself, and her curse ends when I reclaim the Locket of Hair from Ployer's body.
A day of resting will allow Jaheira's physical penalties to lapse. In the meantime, I have another objective. I want to upgrade the Kitthix Figurine for Imoen. I have more than 5,000gp, check. I have the scroll of Spider Spawn that I looted from Pai'Na, check. I buy a scroll of Web from Bernard, check. I only need one more ingredient, 5 Poison Daggers. So, while I'm resting up to allow Jaheira to recuperate, I leave the Copper Coronet at night and find a Storekeep who appears in the southeast corner of the Slums District at night. She can sell me the Poison Daggers I need.
Once Jaheira has fully recovered, I give Cromwell the ingredients and he upgrades the Kitthix Figurine so that the spider can teleport, protect itself with Mirror Image, and can cause more intense poisoning in its targets.
Now that I have set the remainder of Jaheira's romance into motion, my next destination is the De'Arnise Keep.
