Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

-Inashy sits down in the Friendly Arm's Inn, setting aside many parchments and a few bottles of ink. A few moments after settling herself down she reaches into a leathery pouch bringing out a plume sighing softly to herself. Grabbing the first ink vial and opening it, she dips the tip of the plume as she extends the first parchment, stopping herself for a moment, finally putting pen to paper.-

These are the recounting of events from the past few weeks that I feel should be written down. Perhaps others will make sense of the events below bringing light and knowledge to those that wish to listen.

At the very beginning it all started with a rumour. I had heard that the son of Lord Dagobar of the house of the same name had been murdered in suspicious circumstances. Shortly thereafter it was made known that a herald of the same house was to have a meeting with anyone wishing to investigate the matter for them. Having done work in the past of the same nature in the field, I decided to head to Baldur's Gate and see for myself what this was all about.

I arrived in the city late in the afternoon; many Adventurers’ had come to see what this murder was all about; from knights, to rogue types, mages, and priests of all kind. There was quite a gathering in the Palace District. A very nervous Herald stood nearby in silence, waiting for all to gather before beginning to inform us of the situation. When finally it seemed like no more would come, we had over twenty gathered, the herald spoke up.

He announced to us that the son of Lord Dagobar had been murdered in his bed at night. A single blade to the heart, the only mark left behind. Murdered in his own bed, right away it seemed like someone from their own ranks had most likely killed him. No poisons had been used, nobody had been seen coming or going. The poor herald was bombarded with questions from various parties including myself.

Something to note, that in retrospect at the time seemed odd to me, was he wished for someone to lead the investigation, something which is normal of course but. Out of all the people there he chose an inexperienced Paladin. His name escapes me now as I write this, but I recall the Paladin himself seeming surprised that he would be chosen. It became clear to me much later why he had made this choice.

Much bickering ensued between the people gathered at the choice of this young paladin being chosen to lead. This bickering continued on for quite some time until, complaints in tow, he was accepted to lead us.

As the sun was beginning to set we asked where the people concerned were located and if we could examine the body. The herald, with some worry in his face, announced to us that the body had been stolen during the night. Everyone in the crowd stared at the man in disbelief. Clearly this murder was getting more suspicious with each passing moment.

More arguments ensued in the ranks of those gathered and before long the last slivers of the sun vanished from the sky. This is when it happened.

Behind the herald a man, in the colors of House Dagobard that seemed like a guard, approached him, pulling his blade quickly; he slit the man's throat. The poor herald, eyes wide in surprise as his last breath escaped him, dropped dead upon the floor.

Everyone for a few seconds stood surprised at the sudden act, within mere seconds a dozen of vampires appeared out of the nearby houses and rooftops attacking all that were gathered. The man dressed as guard vanished into the shadows as we were now defending ourselves.

The battle was bloody and vicious. Most of the gathered men and woman were slain or incapacitated by the large group of vampires. Only myself and three others survived the onslaught as we destroyed the last vampire.

The wounded were all brought to various temples and the priests did what they could to help them. It seemed like whoever had done the deed had no interest in it being pursued further. Shortly thereafter the Fist came upon the scene and took it over quickly.

As far as I knew, there was nothing else that could be done at the time. However vampires in Baldur’s Gate were quite worrisome, but I hoped the Fist would take this seriously and investigate further.

This had been the first signs of trouble to come, but at the time I had no idea of the ramifications this would have.

-She sighs a little, setting aside the first parchment, pulling a second one before her as she dips the plume a few times for more ink.-

Quite a few days passed and while I was coming back from the north to the Friendly Arm's Inn I ran into a man looking for others to help him with a task. His name was Myhun, a former member of the Fist it seemed, and was recruiting others to join him on recovering some items that were stolen. From my understanding, Myhun had met with a Noble Djinni who had asked him to recover some objects, a model boat and a blade of the winds.

The story goes, that apparently these items had been stolen long ago from the Djinni and it sought for them to be recovered. Being unable to interfere with mortals, which is beyond my understanding, he sought help from adventurer's. I'm not entirely sure how Myhun came to meet the Djinni but it seems he did nonetheless. The reward for their return was nothing less than a wish for those successful. Now, I knew the lore and magic’s involved in such were not to be trifled with, I did accept to help him, but I refused to be rewarded in such a manner.

Also of note, it appears that Myhun had met with the Djinni's daughter. I do not recall her name but she was present near the Inn but did not accompany us further.

It seemed Myhun had discovered that the items were in the possession of another house. House Gauntyl. So after gathering a few more willing we met with the Herald of the house and he brought us to the estate of said Lord.

We met shortly after with the Lord of the house and after we exchanged words with him it seemed like the items had been stolen from his treasury only a few nights ago. We offered to investigate the matter for him which he accepted. We were informed, as we searched the premises, that his daughter's lover had been ousted as a doppelganger only a few days ago as well. This seemed rather an odd turn of events.

We searched his estate for clues and spoke with most of the staff. When we finally spoke with his daughter it became clear she was quite heartbroken. After questioning her about the events and some of the clues we had found, Myhun thought he knew who had stolen the items.

It seemed that one of the paintings in her room, which she did herself, was of a man named Sir Killian. She had painted him with red eyes, which was rather odd. Coupled with bat droppings and magical blood that was found on the scene, Myhun asked to see her neck. There he found a bite mark.

It became clear vampires were involved. My knowledge of the creatures was rather limited and the events of a few days ago did not right away spring to my mind. We went back to see the Lord to report our findings and asked him about Sir Killian and our suspicions. When he told us he was part of House Dagobar, Immediately I recalled the attack in Baldur's gate and spoke of it to Myhun.

More than we knew seemed to be happening that much was very clear. The Lord informed us of the location of Sir Killian's estate and we decided to rest for the night in his estate so we would set out during the day.

-Inashy sets down the plume taking a short break, pulling her waterskin up to her lips and taking a long sip.-

It seemed that during the night the daughter of the lord had been kidnapped. It was clear Sir Killian would most likely be the culprit as he had already bitten the poor girl. We set out at first light towards our goal.

The journey itself to the estate was without incident. Arriving to the location itself, it was clear quite a bit of gold had been poured into its construction. The exterior was quite opulent, with statues and finely cut hedges. We spoke with the guards at the entrance, who seemed to act a little oddly at us being there. They seemed unhappy that we were here but brought us to the main estate regardless after informing them we wished to speak with Sir Killian.

After quite a long walk through the corridors within the estate, with quite a few creepy servants with blank gazes, we were brought before Sir Killian. Myhun had a few tricks up his sleeve and as we were discussing the problems at hand with him, he cast a spell that revealed their nature to him. One of the servants standing nearby, most likely a vampire mage in disguise recognized the spell and shouted out to the others our trickery. Myhun used magic to subdue Sir Killian as the room was flooded with vampires and dopplegangers of all kinds.

The battle seemed endless as waves after waves of them rushed the room, Grum heard muffled cries from the adjacent room and the girl was found. Haeman which was with us and myself took the girl out to safety as Myhun managed to get the location of the one the objects he sought from Killian.

We fought our way out of the Estate and away from it. Haeman and I brought the girl back to her father which rewarded us with a tidy sum of gold. We later met back up with Myhun and Grum at the Friendly Arm's Inn. However I'm not sure what happened to Killian and at the time I did not think to ask about the matter.

-She dips her plume once again into the ink, thinking back to the events, as she sets another page aside.-

It became clear we had to do something about this situation. Myhun said that Killian had told him some information regarding their whereabouts. As we were discussing the matter Myhun's Familiar starts mewing with another nearby cat. It became apparent that this other cat was a mage's familiar. Pressing it for information it was revealed it belonged to Mona Dagobar, the daughter of the lord of the house.

We urged it to bring us to her, which it did after some convincing.

The cat brought us to a small cabin up in the woods. We quickly approached it and entered the premises, startling the girl inside. After we made sure she was neither a doppelganger nor vampire we explained to her the situation at hand. She told us of her father's estate and her uncle's whom she thought no longer was himself.

A man named Felix was with her, who seemed to be her bodyguard and perhaps lover. We didn't press the issue as Grum and Myhun spoke with them. I stood watch by the door and window, making sure we were not followed.

Despite this precaution men dressed in City Watch clothes approached the door, demanding for us to open it. It wasn't clear who they were exactly as the City Watch would never come this far from the city. We refused to open the door and they began attempting to break it down.

We prepared ourselves for a fight. As they finally managed to break down the door, they poured in, some shifting into other creatures, clearly being doppelgangers. We fought hard, but in the confusion it seemed like Mona was kidnapped.

As the dust settled many of them were dead. It was decided we would go to her father's estate to gether more information on the situation, Felix in tow to show us the way there.

-She sighs a little as she revises the previous pages, setting aside the new one as she gives a slight yawn.-


We waited for the sun to rise again before heading for the estate. We gathered a few more willing to help with us on the journey there. As we got close to the estate we were ambushed by more doppelgangers, some of those who had joined us fell, but as the dust settled their injuries were treated.

Finally reaching our goal, Felix helped us get an audience with Lord Dagobar, who seemed to be an experienced mage himself. After making sure neither party were vampires or doppelgangers we were allowed an audience with him and the remaining family members of house Dagobar.

He explained to us that his house had been infiltrated by impostors, taking over power, forcing some of his bothers to name many new inductees into the family. Just like Killian.

As dusk was approaching and we were nearly done discussing the matters at hand it was made clear the leader of this large group needed to be found and stopped. Hopefully rescuing Mona and finding the last remaining artifact at the same time.

We decided it would be safer to remain here for the night, when a guard came running to us, shouting that there was a large force gathering outside of the walls amongst the farmlands.

I advised the Lord to pull back all his soldiers so they could protect him and his family and that the rest of us would man the gates and walls as they came, falling back when necessary.

The attack was brutal and relentless, many vampires came crawling over the walls, doppelgangers rushing the gates, We fought them bravely for many hours as they poured in over and over in large numbers, some of us fell, dragging the bodies back with us as we lost ground. It was gruesome.

As we were losing ground the attack halted for a moment, clearly the enemy having taken serious loses as well. We fell back to the inner gates as Myhun had control of one of the spawns. We questioned him for information as quickly as possible.

The attack renewed shortly after, all those still able came to fight, the guards of House Dagobar joining into the fray to push back the invaders.

As the night went on the attacks came less frequently, it seemed like they had given up for now, having taken too many loses. We healed our wounded and those who had fallen.

The vampire that had been controlled revealed to us that there was a sanctuary in the mountains where their leader resided. It was guarded by all kinds of foul creatures. He called her The Mistress.

-She leaned back in her chair in the Inn, looking over the premises for a moment as she sat aside another page. She seemed lost in thought for a moment before looking back at a new blank page, dipping the plume into fresh ink, and continuing.-

We traveled into the mountains to the north, there was quite a few of us in tow, Myhun, Grum, myself, and a few others. Felix even came with us at the base of the mountain.

The fight up the path to the lair of the Mistress was an arduous one, it seemed we were expected. All manners of undead and beast fell upon us at every step.

Near what I could only call the half way point we were met with a strange woman, Penelope or some such was her name. She seemed intent in helping us, telling us the only way to destroy the Mistress was with the boat we had in our possession. It had to be infused with magic from a dragon near the top of the mountain.

It seemed odd that she wished to help us, but she did. However the fact of the matter remained we had to seek help from a dragon. She handed us a horn to blow into, saying it would call the beast to us.

As quickly as she had come, she was now gone. It felt suspicious that someone wished to help us, but having little choice in the matter we headed to the plateau where she told us to call the dragon. Our hopes laid with it not being hostile.

Fighting our way still upon the mountain, we finally reached our first goal. Myhun, bringing out the horn, blew into it, a slow but powerful sound emanating from the mysterious horn. After a few moments of silence and nervousness, a shadowy figure in the sky can be seen approaching, clearly a dragon, clearly now a BLACK dragon. As we all reach for our weapons it lands atop the rocky plateau folding it's wingspawn as it looks down at us.

A short but troublesome conversation ensues between Myhun and the beast, seeming amused by our presence. It decides to help us but not without the beast forces Myhun to promising he owes it a favor to be collected at a later date.

The large ancient dragon seemed to lose interest after it infused the small boat with it's power, quickly leaving after the deed is done.

Shortly after we continued our ascent, more undead and doppelganger's attempting to stop us. The occasional wild beasts descending upon us as well.

It seemed that Penelope had plans of her own, and out of nowhere she appeared once more. She as well wished for a favor. She would teach us how to use the power encased within the boat. In exchange she told us a Priest of Malar was helping the Mistress, she wished for her to be thrown off the plateau where we had just came from.

I felt like this was a terrible thing to do to someone, regardless of which god they followed, no matter what crimes they had committed, it just didn't feel right.

We argued quite a bit about it but we put it aside for the time being as we still had to enter said sanctuary.

As we climed nearly to the top of the mountain we reached an enourmous armored figure with a fiery horse. The being told us we could not pass and that it would destroy us. After a brief exchange with the creature it seemed evident there was no way around it and it attacked us.

The fight was bloody and many of us were knocked unconscious, as we managed to bring the creature to it's knees, it simply stood back up. It seemed immortal untill we brought it back down to the ground and Myhun used a spell to knock it over the bridge we were standing on. Sending the creature off i, into the darkness below.

We gathered the wounded and pressed on into the menacing santuary that stood before us, before the creature would have the time to ever climb back up we hoped.

// A whole lot more to come.