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CHAPTER 1 | CHAPTER 2 | CHAPTER 3 | CHAPTER 4 | CHAPTER 5 | CHAPTER 6 | CHAPTER 7 | CHAPTER 8 | CHAPTER 9 | CHAPTER 10 | |
MAE'VAR'S GUILDHALL
Pirate Hideout
But first, I stop off at the Sea's Bounty. A secret door leads to a cave that serves as a hideout for some Pirates. This is a very easy fight by now, as it was placed here for anyone who needed a Long Sword +1 and some treasure in the form of Pearls and a Pearl Necklace right away.
Shadow Thieves' Aid
Now I go over and visit Gaelan's place in the Slums District. I have Imoen disarm and loot the various containers on both floors. The reason I put this off was so that Imoen could benefit from the xp as well.
On the second floor is a merchant named Arledrian. I sell my excess loot off to him. He has a few scrolls and potions available for sale, as well as the Glasses of Identification (Identify Item 3/day). I used to buy these, but not anymore. I get by with my own Identify spells in the meantime, and Avastrian will soon use the Limited Wish spell to get a pair of the Glasses for free, making it a wasteful purchase.
Now I head over to Aran Linvail, and convince him to send Shadow Assassins to help me against Bodhi when the time comes.
Renal Bloodscalp
Once I return to the main hall of the Shadow Thieves' Headquarters, I have Imoen go around looting all the containers in sight for their treasure. I then go up some stairs on the west side. Imoen then continues her searching and looting.
On the east side of the upper floor will be Renal Bloodscalp. He wants me to insinuate myself with Mae'Var's guild, and possibly discover proof of Mae'Var's suspected treachery.
The entrance to Mae'Var's guildhall is just east of where I first entered to fight Kangaxx. I step in through the front door. Gorch runs a store that sells potions, armor, weapons, etc., as well as Bracers of A.C. 6 and the Nymph Cloak (+2 Charisma). I present Gorch with my papers from Renal. The door behind him is now open.
Necklace of Talos
I now go downstairs. Imoen continues her looting. I head north and speak with Mae'Var, who wants me to prove myself by stealing a Necklace from a Priestess of Talos.
I then sleep at the Sea's Bounty Tavern until it's night time. I then enter the Temple of Talos in the Temple District. Imoen enters a room at the south end of the Temple, and unlocks the cabinet to steal the Necklace of Talos. She uses her Staff of the Magi to go invisible and avoid being detected.
The party brings the Necklace of Talos to Mae'Var for 29,500 and 27,500xp rewards. Mae'Var then tells me to see his right-hand man at the top floor of the Guildhall.
Rayic Gethras
Now I begin to go up floor after floor in the Guildhall, with Imoen always searching for traps and looting the containers. Of special note is the container I loot at 3:36 of the video, which contains a Shortsword +2, a Studded Leather +1, and a Buckler +1. The Buckler +1 will be used to craft a Holy Buckler of Amaunator under the Item Upgrade Mod.
I continue on to the top floor. Once I finish looting it, I speak with Edwin Odeisseron. His first job for me is to kill a Cowled Wizard named Rayic Gethras.
The entrance to Rayic Gethras' home is just north of the entrance to the Harper Hold. I walk inside and kill a bunch of Mephits. Imoen loots the containers.
I then go up the stairs, and kill a pair of Stone Golems. Imoen loots a little gold from the bed.
I go up more stairs when I run into Rayic Gethras. He's easily killed after Keldorn brings down his protections with a Dispel Magic. Gethras leaves behind a Bracers of A.C. 7 and a Quarterstaff +2.
I report back to Edwin, and get 20,000xp.
*Evil* Rayic Gethras
The evil party does the Mae'Var Guildhall quests MUCH earlier because I want to recruit Edwin as soon as possible. Suffice to say Gethras is much tougher at this point, because I lack the resources to bring his protections down consistently and his offensive spells are quite capable of levelling a still-green evil party. Sorry, but I have to be pretty cheap and shameless about this. I use the stairs to go up and down so as to force him to expend his spells harmlessly, and bide my time until his protections wear off so that I can finally kill him. It's the nature of SCS that lower-level parties can often be forced into confrontations that may be out of their league but for finding that one exploit that will make the difference.
Marcus
Edwin has another task for me, to obtain some documents from somebody named Marcus. Marcus can be found in the Sea' Bounty Tavern now. It's a simple matter for Imoen to drink a Potion of Master Thievery, and then pickpocket Marcus for the documents. I get 10,000xp for bringing them to Edwin.
Embarl
Now I go downstairs to see Mae'Var. He wants me to kill a Shadow Thief named Embarl who, again, is in the Sea's Bounty Tavern. I head over, but choose to spare him instead and take his dagger as false proof. I get rewarded with 18,750xp for bringing the dagger to Mae'Var. Mae'Var then suggests I go upstairs to see Edwin again.
Proof against Mae'Var
Now I go up to see Edwin again. He provides me a key with which to open a strongbox on the third level of the guildhall. I go down and open the strongbox. It holds the proof that Renal Bloodscalp wants, as well as Boots of Stealth (+20% hide in shadows, +15% move silently). Imoen wears these, more for thematic reasons than anything else. They will ultimately become part of the Boots of Celeritous Stealth under the Items Upgrade Mod.
I get 48,250xp for bringing Mae'Var's letters back to Renal Bloodscalp. He then orders me to kill Mae'Var once and for all.
The xp bonus is also enough to advance Anomen to the 25th level, whereupon he receives a special ring, the Holy Symbol of Helm (+1 Strength, +5% magic resistance, bonus 6th and 7th level spells). This will be Anomen's other ring for the rest of the game. This was part of the reason why I stopped having Anomen use Crom Faeyr. A strength score of 19 is nothing to sneeze at. And frankly, I started to like Strength 19 plus the benefits of a different weapon (i.e. the Storm Star mace ultimately) more than Strength 25 and raw damage and not much else besides (well, other but infrequent benefits actually).
Mae'Var
The party now heads over to the Mae'Var Guildhall. There will be plenty of Shadow Thieves to fight on the second and third floors, but Keldorn minimizes any danger with his True Seeing ability.
The party now heads down to the basement for a confrontation with Mae'Var and his thugs. Mae'Var couldn't cast spells in vanilla BG2, due to him wearing a leather armor. SCS removes this restriction. Even so, the battle is easily won with Keldorn keeping everyone visible with his True Seeing and Jaheira hitting Mae'Var with an Insect Plague. Mae'Var leaves behind a Shadowed Leather +3 (+20% hide in shadows).
I bring back the good news to Mae'Var, and everyone in the party gets 45,500xp. The party also gets 10,500xp and a Shortsword of Backstabbing +3.
Renal Bloodscalp's Boots of Speed
Now the thing is, I want to get Renal Bloodscalp's Boots of Speed so that I can meld them with another pair of boots under the Item Upgrade mod. The problem is no matter how much I jack up Imoen's pickpocket skill, I can't pickpocket the Boots themselves. All that will happen is that I'll pickpocket a bunch of jewels and rings from him, but then I'll eventually get 'no items to be pickpocketed' without having gotten the boots.
The other problem is that if I attack Mae'Var, the other Shadow Thieves will go hostile. If any Shadow Thief goes hostile (i.e. red circle) after I've aligned with Aran Linvail, somebody named Arkanis Gath will show up and insta-death my whole party in a matter of moments.
Here I show a simple and somewhat well known trick. I go outside, and have Imoen reconfigure her 5th level spells so that they're all Feeblemind spells. Then we go back into the second floor of the Shadow Thieves headquarters. She begins casting Feeblemind on each Shadow Thief on the second floor one by one. This won't provoke any of the Shadow Thieves into going hostile. If a Shadow Thief makes his saving throw, I'll simply reload. If the spell works, indicated by a brief icon that appears over the victim's head, I'll quick-save. I do this to every Shadow Thief on the second floor, including Mae'Var.
Now I kill Mae'Var himself. Neither he nor any other Shadow Thief will go hostile. I loot his body for the Boots of Speed, a Heavy Crossbow +2, and a Shadowed Leather +3 (+20% hide in shadows). If you try this, do not go down to the first floor. For some reason the Shadow Thieves there will go hostile. Instead, go directly outside where the Shadow Thieves will remain friendly. This way Arkanis Gath will still fight for you against Bodhi instead of coming to hunt for you.
Now I head over to Cromwell. I have him make two items for me.
First, I give him a Rogue Stone and 10,000gp to merge one pair of Boots of Speed and the Boots of the North into the Blizzard Boots (doubles wearer's foot speed, +50% cold resistance). These will be Jaheira's boots for the rest of the game.
Second, I give him the Buckler +1 I found in Mae'Var's Guildhall, the Symbol of Amaunator, 5 Sunstone Gems, and 10,000gp, to create the Holy Buckler of Amaunator +2 (False Dawn 2/day, immunity to level draining). This shield will come in handy against monsters capable of level-draining.
Now I have a few things to do involving the Limited Wish spell.
