12 hours of travel to friendly Arm Inn, lunch then followed by 12 hours of travel back down to Beregost on the way to Nashkel. As much as we would like to continue on, the girls insisted on having a proper rest before continuing to Nashkel. Khalid and Jaheira may have still been pretty fresh, but my legs needed a break too.
Stopping by Beregost meant that I had one last chance to rethink my shopping. I expected to spend some time in the Southern regions before moving back up north again. There were no more Sling +1 at Thunderhammer's, unfortunately. I settled for buying a bit more bullets +1, and that's it. I was hesitant to drain all our funds dry. Maintaining around 2k+ gold pieces buffer was pretty nice.
We were resting at the Burning Wizard, so Garrick was just outside looking for mercenaries. Was now the time to talk to him? ...No, I wanted to wait until I had a Potion of Master Thievery. I tried not to look him in the eyes as we walked in and out of the inn.
The initial part of our journey south was rather eventful. The first thing we encountered were two orgillons along the road standing over a body. A sleep spell knocked one unconscious, and we focused down the other.
"These aren't the half ogres Bjornin was talking about, are they?" I asked, knowing the answer fully well.
"No, these are ogrillon. Half-ogres are what you get from humans and ogres procreating. Ogrillon are from orcs and ogres. The half-ogres Bjornin mentioned are hanging around the south southwest area from Beregost," Neera helped recount.
The body on the road showed no signs of life but there was a letter to a lady named Miriam.
"Would help if we knew who Miriam was and where she lived, eh? Eh?" Imoen said as she gave me a nudge.
I wanted to say I did know Miriam was in an eastern house in Beregost, but the hairs on my back stood on end. "Uh, yeah... Such a shame we don't. Let's hold on to the letter, just in case we meet her though."
While we, I heard Neera smack Imoen across the back.
We had barely walked down another 10 minutes when 3 Flaming Fist mercenaries decked in PLATE MAIL accosted us. "You're under arrest for bandits and highway robbery!" they shouted at our company.
Money bags! Money bags have been specially delivered straight to us! I resisted the urge to rub my hands together in glee.
Well, technically members of the Flaming Fist were not evil. In spite of being mercenaries, they're actually employed by the Dukes at Baldur's Gate to enforce law in the city. Aren't they a bit far from the city proper?
"We're not bandits. We've been actively taking out bandits," I explained. I wasn't trying too hard, but I had to give it look like I was giving an honest attempt.
"Likely story. Why should I believe you!"
Funnily enough, I remembered the correct response to trigger battle with the overzealous mercs. More or less. I gave them my brightest smile. "Ser, can't you see our honest faces. We're adventurers, out to save the world!"
The three mercs leaned in to look at me, then at each other. The three huddled together, and I overheard "Well, the little halfling doesn't really look like a bandit," they said to each other.
WAIT, WHAT?!? You're supposed to not believe such a flimsy reason and try to kill us! My precious money bags were escaping!
I looked at my party in a panic, trying my best to maintain my cheesy smile. It's not like I could pick a fight with local law and get away with it!
There's no way. If I try to say something suspicious, the party would never forgive me. I resigned myself to the loss of resources. How very disappointing.
"Hold it. The halfling said he's an adventurer. Is that believable?" one said, looking out from their huddle towards me.
Oi.
Another poked his head out of the huddle to look me up and down. "Not hardy likely."
The last one did the same. "So they're lying to us. They're bandits after all! The halfling must be the boss or something, the type that gives orders, not actually do anything."
Oiiiii.
"Yeah, shifty lazy type that doesn't do things themselves and gets his minions to do his dirty work! He's got that look!"
"Yeah, trying to hard to look innocent. You can't fool us!"
Oiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
I may be getting what I want, but I still wasn't happy about how this was turning out.
Jaheira face-palmed.
The Three Stooges (that's what I'm going to call them henceforth) were in fact decked in plate mail so they had very touch AC to crack, even for us at our elevated levels. However, they only had a save vs death of 13. Sleep knocked out two of them, and a Bless and Blind spell helped us take out the last one.
After dispatching the Three Stooges, Jaheira had words for me. "I'm beginning to see why you end up with so much money and equipment" she said dryly, "Next time, I'll handle the talking."
"Hey, we just talked about this!" I protested.
"No, no, I agree with her," Imoen said.
"Same here," Neera nodded.
I glared at the pink irritations. Traitors! Both of you, traitors!
I tried to convince the rest to change up our generic horn-helmet for the fancy red-plumed ones the Flaming Fist used. No one wanted to be caught wearing such recognizable Flaming Fist gear. The only equipment which they conceded on was one of the plate mail, which went to Jaheira after we scrubbed off the Flaming Fist insignia. Even she figured plate mail was too valuable to turn down, I suppose.
As we walked further down, I pretended to have a thought occurred to me. "Bandits, bandits, bandits... didn't Zhurlong mention he had lost a pair of boots here?"
"Zhur-who? Oh!" Imoen did that little gesture where one plonks their fist onto the palm of their hand. "That jerk who stole our money! Yeah, he did. Ugh, was it to hobgoblins in the area?"
"Since we 'paid' for the info, we may as well grab ourselves a pair of Boots of Stealth," I said with a grin.
We went off road, and searched the general vicinity. We eventually found a group of hobgoblins.
Oh, what a difference a few levels and good equipment made. With Khalid having such an astoundingly good defences, together with my Sling+1 and Khalid's Longsword+1, we didn't even need a sleep spell. Classic tank and spank.
It got a bit hairy when a ghoul randomly walked into the ongoing battle though from our flank. But we took it out at range before it reached us.
"Surprised we shot this one without letting it explain itself," Imoen gave comment.
"Well this one didn't say 'wait wait don't shoot me friend', did it?"
One of the hobgoblins was indeed wearing fancy magical boots! Since we knew what we were looking for, I tried them on. Not cursed, at least.
"These things really do help me step lighter. I'd say they're what we were looking for," I said while trying them out. I looked to Jaheira. "Any complaints?"
She put her hands up. "Nope, all good here. Carry on, pathfinder."
Just above the hobgoblins was a cave with 5 healing potions in it and a bit of gold. That would certainly come in handy.
The area further south was really just trash mobs, as we usually call them. Large groups of hobgoblins and gibberling and the like. With those numbers of trash mobs in each group, Neera threw out a sleep spell each time, just to avoid a lucky hit getting through.
"Nobody in town mentioned to be on the lookout for stuff in this area, right?" I asked the rest. I had genuinely forgotten, by this point.
Imoen and Neera didn't think so either.
We were just north of Nashkel by this point. It was finally time to push onward to Chapter Two.
As we walked into the quaint mining town of Nashkel, were were approached by one of the soldiers, a certain Bardolan. Bardolan insisted we identify ourselves before entering.
Jaheira did the talking. "We are the adventuring party led by Sonny. We have heard Nashkel is trouble as of late, and we wish to put ourselves at the disposal of the town during our stay here."
"Sonny's group huh. I've heard of you. But why are you speaking on Sonny's behalf?" Bardolan asked.
"Yes, Jaheira. Why are you speaking on my behalf?" I butted in.
Bardolan blinked at me. "That's Sonny? Huh. He's as… uh, of unique stature as people say."
I balked. Is THAT how people identify our group? Dear gods!
Jaheira pushed me away. "Sonny is having a sore throat, he will be happy to speak for the party when it is better."
"But I heard him speak just now-"
"ANYWAY. Can you tell us about the troubles in town? We only heard vague rumors," Jaheira continued.
Bardolan did indeed have some more vague rumors to share, along with some verified news both.
The rumor was that there were demons in the mines. DEMONS. Which would be quite a bit over our head, even after the not-quite-power-levelling we did.
The verified news was that of a Commander Brage, who went insane and killed his wife and children as well as everyone in the vicinity. Brage was still at large, and a definite threat. Got to keep an eye out for that one.
Looking at the markings on the groups of soldiers march around town, a thought struck me. "Wait, these are Amnian soldiers, not from Flaming Fist mercenaries from Baldur's Gate. Huh, how does the politics work again? I thought we were solving the iron crisis for Baldur's Gate, not Amn."
"We're actually just within the northern border of Amn," Khalid pointed out.
We discussed some of the politics which was affecting the severity of the iron crisis. The Nashkel mines did in fact supply iron to the region, including that of Baldur's Gate in spite of being of another sovereign territory. When there was issue with the quality of iron from mines here, Baldur's gate naturally blamed the supplier. It was seen as an intentional move by Amn to weaken Baldur's Gate.
Some suspected the Zhentarim to be to blame for the crisis, engineering a war between two states to get business as a mercenary group. However, the key players in the bigger political arena that were currently in dispute were Amn and Baldur's Gate.
"So what we're doing could affect a war between Baldur's Gate and Amn," I pondered as we sat at the bridge right outside the entrance of town. It was a lovely view and the gentle stream gurgling beneath us was pleasant too. "This is a lot more serious than I bargained for."
"Which was why I and Khalid were keen on going to investigate it as soon as possible, see?" Jaheira said.
"I-I-I think the time spent was not in vain. Remember the clues they found, and the agreement with the agents?"
"I'm not complaining. Just making sure they understand the gravity of the situation," Jaheira clarified. She grinned. "Well, not complaining much then."
I stood up, stretched my limbs. "Fine then. With the politics out of the way, are we ready to take out some assassins?"
Khalid and Jaheira looked at me with blank expressions. "…what?"
"Just go along with it," Imoen said, Neera nodding.