We moved cautiously into Shadow Druid territory, expecting to run right into a druid dressed in furs or bark. Instead we found a man sharply dressed in high fashion, or what passes of as high fashion in the cities these days, sitting in a clearing on a tablecloth while drinking wine and eating bread. He was a dashing fellow with a well-cared mustache and a mandolin on his back.
Yes, that's a bard. No, I didn't want to talk to him.
The party was outright frozen in place with curiosity at the sight before them, and my attempts to hurry them along went unheard.
The bard flashed a bright smile at us. "Gentlemen, gentlewomen, may I introduce myself? I am Eldoth Kron," the bard said, and looked right at Imoen and Neera. "It is a surprise to find such beautiful people wandering these woods."
The two pink-haired irritations, on their part, blushed and swooned. They gave a little giggle and waved at him shyly.
I must have made a face because Jaheira glanced at me and chuckled. I could tell my teeth were clenched tight. Can you blame me? I knew just what type of guy Eldoth was.
Eldoth invited us to sit with him and enjoy some of his Berduskan amber wine, which the ladies readily accepted in spite of my protests. He had a proposal for us.
"There's a girl, my lover in fact, who desires to escape her father and live on her own. Her father is Entar Silvershield, one of the dukes of Baldur's Gate. This, of course, makes her desires more difficult than that of the average city girl. However, with your assistance, we could help her escape the tyrannical clutches of Entar," Eldoth said.
"Ooooh, forbidden love!" Imoen cried out.
"Ooooh, so romantic!" Neera cried out.
Eldoth grinned at their reaction, pleased with himself. When he looked in my direction however, he coughed nervously. "Of course, Skie will need some funds to live her new life of freedom. It's hard to transition from a pampered life to one of high adventure. Since Entar's going to be hunting us anyway, we can blackmail him for hoards of cash and not worry about our captive escaping. All for the sake of Skie, of course."
Jaheira, Khalid and Branwen, who had been only half listening, sat at attention.
The sides of my mouth curled upwards. Ah, now you get it, don't you? This is a scam. This guy's a con artist who plays with the hearts of innocent girls.
My mouth turned down again when I looked at Imoen and Neera. The two pink-haired irritations still stars in their eyes.
"Ooooh, so thoughtful!" Neera said, swooning.
"Ooooh, how wonderful!" Imoen said, swooning.
I coughed, and locked eyes with Jaheira, Branwen and Khalid. We all got up, Jaheira and Khalid moving behind Imoen, and I and Branwen behind Neera. We took each pink-haired irritation by the armpits, and dragged them away.
"Huh? What?" Neera said, confused.
"Why aren't we helping?" Imoen pleaded. "We need to unite the two lovers!"
As we walked off with complaining and whining pink irritations in tow, Eldoth called out, "You're missing the opportunity of your life!"
The opportunity to turn into a slimeball like you? No thanks. I gritted my teeth through the rage boiling in my heart, and kept dragging the pink idiot who was kicking and screaming.
---
Eldoth, as mentioned earlier, is the other bard available in the game. His most salient trait is that he's total, utter slime. I can't think of another character who is slimier than Eldoth in the entire trilogy, frankly. That said, Eldoth's special ability is incredible; he creates poison arrows! Unfortunately, his dexterity is terrible so he is unlikely to hit with said arrows which only he can use. Most folks don't really have a place for an evil bard on their team.
If it wasn't clear from his quest, Eldoth is paired with another character, Skie, his so-called 'willing hostage'. She is a human thief who you can only get very late in the game, so tends to be overlooked by most players, especially since there is another late-game thief who has far better thief skills. The nail in the coffin is that Skie's thief skills are all over the place so she is quite useless.
Together, Eldoth and Skie are considered by many to be the worst set of paired companions in the game. The only upside to them is their con job which provides money.
I like money. But even I have my standards. There are lines one does not cross. Eldoth has gone way, way over that line.
---
We came across a cave bear and considered using the Ring of Animal charming but decided it wasn't necessary. We put it down without too much difficulty. A cave bear just doesn't compare to the horrors we faced with the spiders at this point.
The forest was too think to pass through easily to the immediate west, so we had to get past a river to head north. Fortunately there was a bridge across nearby. We were trying to sneak across quietly when we heard a yell, "You there! I command you to stop, so that I may parley with you a moment."
Ack. Maybe we should have charmed the bear as a bodyguard after all?
"My name is Laskal, and I am the protector of the Cloakwood. I would ask you a question before I take my leave of you," he said in a tone that made it clear we had no say in the matter. "I have a message for those that serve the Iron Throne. Would you be a representative of that organisation?"
Staff, check. Unkempt hair, check. Leather armour, check. Commanding, holier than thou attitude? Super check. This was a druid, probably a shadow druid.
Jaheira was wisely keeping to the back of the group, her hood up to cover her features.
With Jaheira in the back, the party looked to me. There was a decision to be made here. To be honest, or to be devious and try to intercept a message for the Iron Throne?
The correct answer was pretty obvious if one gave it some thought.
"We have no connection to that evil group. We are sworn enemies of the Iron Throne," I declared.
Would Shadow Druids, who revere nature and hate civilization, approve of the mining operations conducted by the Iron Throne? Hell no. The message was probably something like "You shall all die!"
Laskal had been looking at Khalid expectantly, and only now looked down at me. His expression was one of surprise and curiosity rather than disdain. "You answer for this group? How… remarkable. I trust this group's good judgement in picking enemies can be attributed to you," Laskal said with a slight smile. "I am glad to know that you also oppose this organisation. They have been a blight on these woods ever since they reopened the ancient dwarven iron mine."
He gave us a Potion of Invulnerability, and gave us directions to the Iron Throne base to the east.
---
Laskal is unavoidable, but the other Shadow Druids are optional. The other Shadow Druids will attack on sight as long as Jaheira is in the party. They are all high-level druids, at least level 7 and even an incredible level 10, who are inexplicably worth an absolutely tiny amount of experience considering their level (120exp).
So the big question was, should we head west immediately and avoid the Shadow Druids, or go around courting death?
---
Social Justice Warrior #1
"You cannot hide from judgement while within the sight of a Shadow Druid!" Takiyah the Shadow Druid screamed at Jaheira in the back, who clicked her tongue in response.
Ironically, it was precisely because I had Jaheira in my group that I decided to pick fights for little experience. Enhanced Edition added a nice item for her to use, see.
Takiyah slammed his staff on the ground and pointed at us accusingly. "All who claim membership in traditional druidic orders must contend with our wrath, as will all that defile nature. I have identified Jaheira among you, no doubt she has converted you to her fantastical views wherein people live alongside nature in 'harmony.' Such views are weak, and must be purged! Blah-blah-blah-"
I cocked my head, puzzled. I looked to Jaheira, and she just shrugged back at me.
Normally I skipped past conversations from dumb-dumbs like this. Was this guy trying to lecture us to death? Maybe he would let us go after we hear him out?"
"-blah-blah-blah- You have consorted with enemies of the Shadow Druids, and death shall be the penalty!" Takiyah finally declared, and raised his staff high.
"I have a question first!" I blurted out, my hand raised.
Takiyah frowned, but lowered his staff and gestured I continue.
"Why did you lecture us for so long if you were just going to kill us anyway? It's not like we'll get the chance to change our ways."
Takiyah's eyes flashed with rage. "You dare! You-"
"Is it because you're a self-righteous twat who gets a kick out of telling others they're inferior? That's what all Shadow Druids are, aren't they?"
Jaheira snorted, failing to keep her laughter in.
---
Social Justice Warrior #2
"There! You are friends of Jaheira!" Izefia the Shadow Druid screamed, and pointed right at Jaheira in the back in spite of the hood.
Jaheira frowned. "Is my name written on my clothes somewhere? How are these fools spotting me so quickly?"
Izefia ignored her, and slammed his staff down and pointed at us with a lecturing finger. "She is of the druidic order that follows Seniyad, one of the three archdruids. Well, I do not share their philosophy! It is because of their pacifist doctrines that atrocities against nature continue -blah-blah-blah-"
"Sweet merciful gods, stop!" Neera yelped. "Are you going to lecture us for five minutes before declaring we must die as well?!?"
"Fools!" Izefia yelled, and slammed his staff down again. "You have committed crimes against nature, but you shall not escape from indictment! Blah-blah-blah-"
I sighed and said to Neera, "Yes. The answer is yes."
---
Shadow Druids may be high level, but dressed in only leather armour and fighting alone, even the level 7 Shadow Druids like Takiyah and Izefia fall pretty easily to six adventurers of moderate level like us. I guess that's why each of them only grant 120 exp.
---
Social Justice Warrior #3
"Seniyad's followers are well-known to me; you travel with the one known as Jaheira!" Amarande the Shadow Druid screamed, and pointed right at Jaheira in the back in spite of the hood.
"Okay, Amarande here gets a pass because he's the Shadow Archdruid," Jaheira said, pulling down her hood since it wasn't doing her any good anyway.
We had entered a house fashioned out of a hollowed out tree, a druid's way of creating homes without disturbing the natural order, apparently. We found Amarande on the first floor.
Amarande and slammed his staff down and pointed at us with a lecturing finger. "Her naive views of society living in harmony with nature must be cleansed from the world so that nature may regain the respect it deserves! Blah-blah-blah-"
"Oh my god make it stop!" Neera screamed. "Hit him already!"
We shrugged, and drew our weapons.
---
Like Takiyah and Izefia before him, Amarande was lightly armoured and alone, facing six adventurers of reasonable skill. Totally unlike them, being level 10, Amarande's spells are a very big threat and he is not to be underestimated!
The prime threat amongst his spells was the over-powered Insect Swarm. Insect Swarm does not allow a saving throw on the first target it infects, can spread to more victims, does 1 damage per 2 seconds for 36 seconds (or 18 damage total), causes 100% spell casting failure, and each victim must save against a fear effect.
Interrupting him with a disable spell was super unlikely by the way since he had stupid good saves against everything. Worse, sometimes, enemies refuse to be interrupted due to a bug/feature in Baldur's Gate 2's engine, which the Enhanced Edition of BG1 uses. If Amarande cannot be interrupted while casting Insect Swarm, we could be looking at a total party kill (TPK).
---
Which was incidentally what was happening RIGHT NOW. Armande was totally ignoring all the pain we were dishing out onto him, and kept incanting with a cruel smile across his face.
"Sonny! What-do-we-do-What-do-we-do?" Neera asked, desperate.
I gave her a withering look. "Come on, we discussed this. Let's all do it together."
As one, we waved at Armande and said, "Okay-thanks-bye."
And walked back down the stairs to the ground floor.
We waited a moment. Then another moment. I guess it was taking awhile for the arch shadowdruid to process what had just happened.
Then, from downstairs, we heard screaming from above, "Come back here and fall to my sickle, you parasitic taint!"
As Armande stomped down the stairs to confront us again, sans whatever spell he had been incanting earlier, Imoen looked to me with a complicated expression. "You know, it's us doing the clever play and all, but even I feel like this is cheating."
On her part, Branwen let out a long, drawn-out sigh.
---
Yup. We can do that. Repeatedly, just like with Neira with an 'i', uh, I mean Newbie Trap #3.
Without use of his greatest spells, Armande was pretty powerless before us. He had an unidentified club on him, which I knew was a club +2. Perfect for Jaheira, who had ++ weapon proficiency in clubs. When she hits level 6 in fighter she'll be able to push her weapon proficiency in scimitars to ++ as well at which point she'll switch to the scimitar+2 as her main weapon. The club+2 would be the better weapon for skeletons and heavy armor targets regardless.
We also raided the Shadow Druid treehouse for some loot! A healing potion, a Potion of Freedom, Potion of Healing, an Antidote, a Potion of Fortitude, and 10x Bullets+1.
Oh, and 360 total experience for defeating two level 7 and one level 10 druid.
Somehow I still felt like I've been cheated of my due.