The Tome of Intelligence from Ramazith went to Neera and the Tome of Wisdom went to Branwen. I had half a heart of using both on myself since the effects of the these permanent ability score bonus books on companions do not carry over to future games, but thought better of it. May as well enjoy some benefit for awhile rather than no benefit since the Tomes were useless for me. In BG2 later, mindflayers drain 5 Intelligence per hit. So it was important to have at least 6 Intelligence to survive a hit from them, or 11 to survive two hits. I had 11 already for this purpose, so bringing it up to 12 would do nothing for me.
At the Sorcerous Sundries, I bought Halbazzer's entire stock of Arrows of Detonation (60x) for 12060 gold.
"Why would we ever need THAT many? What army are we going to destroy at this point?" Neera balked.
I coughed.
There was in fact quite possibly an actual army in the future, actually. Depends if the whole mess with Dragon Spear really happens.
I also purchased 10 Arrows of Dispelling for 2010 gold, bringing our total to 14, and 20 Arrows of Biting for 668 gold, bringing my total to 34. Imoen should be able to use these with impunity when the situation calls for it now.
For potions, I bought all 3 Potions of Storm Giant Strength (sets to 24), another Potion of Clarity, a Potion of Mind Focusing and 3 Potions of Invisibility from Halbazzer for a total of 4320 gold. Now I had a total of 8 Potions of Invisibility, which were a very useful limited resource I should use sparingly.
Neera chugged a Potion of Genius and Mind Focusing, then scribed Emotion Hopelessness, Improved Invisibility, and Spider Spawn. I think she was only missing Minor Sequencer at this point.
---
It was time to head back outside. I looked at the map and realised there was an area west of Larswood I hadn't covered yet. What was there… ah, the Ring of Energy!
… Kind of meh actually, considering we had so many Necklaces of Missiles. Well, it's loot and it's on the way.
There, we met a man named Fahrington who had lost his 'scroll of wisdom' to a tasloi, which then wandered into an Ettercap lair. "The poor tasloi is probably quite dead now but the ettercaps, of course, will not recognize the scroll's value. If you could retrieve it for me, I promise to brighten your karma."
Karma, meh. Does karma buy me food? Magical items? How do the people of Faerun even know what karma is anyway?
Ettercaps are hunched over, a bit tricky to smack the back of its head. I settled for crushing its spine from behind instead. And that's all it took.
Fahrington, on his part asked us to keep the scroll. "It will increase your karmic essence," he said.
…huh. "Neera, identify the scroll please."
"I haven't prepared the spell."
"Use one of our Identify scrolls."
She did so. The so-called scroll of Wisdom turned out to be a cursed scroll of Foolishness.
Khalid and Jaheira dragged me away from Fahrington. "Let it go. It's okay, let it go," Khalid said.
"Just one whack over the head! Come on, he's asking for it. It's karma!" I yelled while brandishing my Quarterstaff+3 at Fahrington, to no avail.
---
Later, I scouted out a group of Thayan mages performing some sort of ritual on an ancient elevated platform in a clearing.
"More mages from Thay? Red robes and bald like the previous ones?" Neera asked when I got back to the rest.
"The very same. I don't suppose they're also looking for you?"
"All the way out here? Doubt it. But we should expect trouble all the same. Wizards of Thay are like that."
---
Denak was rather displeased when he spotted a group of five armed travelers coming their way. "It is so sad to have met you this fine day. Normally, we would be quite ecstatic to have visitors, but in these troubled times we really do desire privacy. We just can't afford to have anyone knowing that we're here. That is why you must die."
"Good morning! I am from Calimshan!"
Denak and the other mages dressed in red paused, confused for a moment. That totally wasn't the reaction they were expecting. When the man from Calimshan stepped forward at high speeds, blitzing into melee range, Denak panicked and screamed "Attack!"
Denak was the leader at the head of the group, while the other mages were Diana, Lasala and Brendan.
Denak and Brendan's first spells were Mirror Images, but Denak didn't manage to complete his incantation before I crushed his skull wide open with my Quarterstaff+3 (from behind, of course). Diana first spell was to cast Ghost Armor on herself, driving down her AC to 2. Lasala's first move was to cast Magic Missiles at Khalid, which funnily enough was the only damage we were going to take. Khalid took a hit from one Magic Missile and resisted the other thanks to the Cloak of the Balduran.
In spite of her Ghost Armour spell, Khalid slashed Diana across the chest once, twice. She went down. Against Khalid's Thac0 of 4, AC 2 was as good as AC20. The rest of our party's spells completed, Silence by Branwen, Magic Missile by Neera, and Sleep by Imoen. Magic Missiles struck out most of Brendan's Mirror Images, then Sleep put both Brendan and Lasala to sleep. Silence was unnecessary, as it were.
Speaking of unnecessary, we had even pre-buffed with Remove Fear so we would have been immune to their Horror spell. Without any means to control the fight, Denak's group simply wasn't a threat for us. We were vastly over-leveled compared to these Red Wizards.
Loot:
Mage Robe of Electrical Resistance, Mage Robe of Fire Resistance, Mage Robe of Cold Resistance (x2),
Potion of Healing (2),
Mage scrolls of Remove Magic, Burning Hands, Armor, Blindness, Agannazar's Scorcher, Grease, and Protection from Petrification,
And the Ring of Energy. This is a ring which blasts an enemy for 2d6 damage, twice. In the Enhanced Edition the ring goes right through spells that protect against other spells like Globe of Invulnerability. Not a whole lot of damage, but good for interrupting enemies with spell protections up. I suppose that could become relevant, actually.
There was also a pack of giant spiders in the area; 3 Giant Spiders, 1 Phase Spider, 1 Wraith Spider, and 1 Sword Spider. These would have been a threat to a lower-level party, but we just fireball-ed them from afar with both Neera and Imoen. I suppose if our party was lower level a combination of Sleep and Command spells would have controlled the fight, allowing us to focus on the Wraith Spider which was immune to sleep-type spells.
---
Next stop, Beregost! We hadn't rested for 2 whole days since traveling from the big city, so we spent a bit of time resting and catching up with Xzar and Montaron.
"So the Grand Dukes of Baldur's Gate have plenty of reason to believe the Iron Throne are the true culprits behind the Iron Crisis, rather than say, the Zhentarim," I told them. "Not that it matters to you both, since you're not Zhentarim. Right?"
"Uh, no. Of course not," Xzar said, sweating a little.
"Nope. Not us," Montaron added quickly.
"Although, one must say, marvelously done with bringing the true culprit to light," Xzar said.
"Aye, marvelous job."
Really, still not going to admit who you work for at this point? How about this then. "By the way, have either of you heard from you superiors lately? The roads have been mostly cleared so there shouldn't be an issue getting a message through."
Xzar and Montaron shared a look. "Our communications with the leadership, or lack thereof, is not yet for you to know, aspiring member," Xzar said with an aloof tone. "Maybe after you have proven your use to the network's interests."
Jaheira's eyebrow raised. "Network? As in Black Network?"
Black Network meaning Zhentarim.
"Of course not. Shush, your betters are talking," Xzar chided her.
Jaheira scowled and shifted forward but was held back by Khalid. She sat back again, then a grin formed on her face. "Good. For our group was accosted by members of the Black Network in the big city. Four necromancers. They did not survive the experience."
Xzar and Montaron's eyes widened.
"Wha- Are you sure? Members of the Black Network are not to be trifled with. To be done in so easily, you must be mistaken-"
Jaheira tossed the card with the symbol of the Zhentarim to them. "Do you think this is genuine?"
Xzar and Montaron glared at the card.
Xzar's mouth quivered. "How-"
Both Xzar and Montaron yelped for joy. "-wonderful! Those idiots are dead! That makes us the new leaders of the branch!"
The two did a little dance celebrating their new promotion.
"Uh, what happened to hiding that you're working for the Zhentarim?" Neera asked.
"Shush! You dolts obviously already knew anyway. It's time to celebrate!"
Khalid and Jaheira looked at each other, incredulous.
I'm guessing they had the same question I had. How on earth does the Zhentarim stay a significant power in the realms with morons like these in their ranks?!?