A/N: Happy New Year, everyone! What better way to ring in 2017 than with a new chapter? I hope y'all are ready for Linn and Imoen's day out. Enjoy!
Day 18, Hour 17
Immy and me had a day what was considerably more exciting than what we'd planned for. Sure, it started out all nice and carefree, but stuff started happening soon enough.
Early on it started raining, so first thing we did was duck into the nearest tavern to wait it out. Place called the Burning Wizard. We had a couple of drinks, and talked about stuff, like what we think about the people we've been traveling with, that sort of thing. Immy asked me lots of questions about what I thought of the others, and she kept getting more and more specific. Oddly so. So finally, I asks her, Immy, what're you getting on about?
And get this, Mr. Journal – she thinks I have, you know, a THING for Rasaad. I. I just. What? I'm sorry, Mr. Journal, don't get me wrong or anything. I like Rasaad. I like being around him and all, and sure, I get all fluttery and nervous inside when I think about him sometimes, but I don't, you know, like him that way. I think. I mean, when I go and fall in love, and get in a relationship and all, I'd know right away I'd found the one. I mean, Rasaad? I can't even talk to him. Listen to him, yeah. I can listen to him real good. I could probably listen to him speak all the livelong day and be content. But when it comes time for me to actually say something, I just get all frozen up and everything what comes out of my mouth sounds downright stupid. I'm not sure if I can really get into that kind of relationship with someone what I have trouble even talking to, can I? Um, anyways, I told Immy she was full of beans, and she was just all laughing and stuff. I don't think she believed me.
There was some guy what lifted some gold off of us while we were drinking and then had the gall to start complaining to us about his missing boots once we caught him. I get the feeling the only way we're going to get our money back from him is to find his boots. I figure it's too much of a hassle to go out looking for them just to get back fifteen gold, but if we run into the ones what stole them later, it sure wouldn't hurt to bring them back to him.
After the rain stopped, me and Immy went outside and just wandered around town for a while. Beregost has a lot of pretty gardens. They're real nice and peaceful. We also talked to folk here and there. Seems like word of our deeds in the Nashkel Mines has already reached here, and now we're actually pretty famous. Though, most folk what met us were right surprised to find out we weren't ten feet tall with great manly beards. Apparently, that was a rather large part of the rumors by the time they made it this far north. I wonder what I would look like with a beard. Mr. Journal. Probably right strange, for sure. There were still several people what stopped us and thanked us, though, calling us heroes and all, despite our distinct lack of beards. Felt real good.
Oh! Also, we ran into old Firebead! Turns out he lives here in Beregost! Never thought we'd see anyone we knew from Candlekeep here, even if it was just a frequent visitor. We caught up on old times and helped him track down a book he was trying to find before going our separate ways again.
We hadn't left Firebead's house but a few minutes before when some little girl flagged us down and told us there was an officer looking for us over at the Jovial Juggler, on the south side of town. So, we went there, not knowing what to expect, really. But, we figured it would be better to get it over with, whatever it was. That was where we met Officer Vai. She was a real stern-looking lady, with real short hair and real shiny armor. She says she''ll pay us to hunt bandits in the area, 50 gold per head. That's a lot of gold, Mr. Journal. I don't much like the idea of hunting down folks with the intent of killing them, but I mean, they are notorious criminals, we do need the gold, and we're definitely looking for a group of bandits ourselves. At the very least, me and Immy should tell the others about this. For all we know, a job like this could very well lead us straight to Tazok's goons.
We didn't stay in the Jovial Juggler for long after that, but we did meet a couple folks, including a paladin who'd had a bad run-in with some half-ogres, and a dwarf what had his cloak stolen in the Cloakwood. He gave me a dirty look when I laughed at that. Couldn't help it, though. I mean, he lost his cloak. In the Cloakwood. Ahahahaha.
Well, okay, maybe it's not that funny, but still.
Anyway. After that little detour we walked around some more. Was a real nice day, and starting to get close to lunchtime. Course, we weren't done having random run-ins and whatnot. Not by a long shot. Some twitchy girl grabbed us and started asking us for help 'cause there were some wizard bandits or something like that after her. She wasn't real clear on the details, and before we could ask her anything more they showed up and we ended up having to fight them.
Surprisingly, they weren't much trouble, even though we didn't have the others with us. After we beat them up enough they just turned tail and ran. The girl thanked us for our help and introduced herself as Neera. She said she was sorry for dragging us into her troubles, but she was desperate and all. Then she asked if she could travel with us, safety in numbers and whatnot. I told her sure, why not, but warned her we were going to meet someone in Nashkel in a couple few days, and what they said might determine whether she could stay with us longer or not. After all, even if I'm in charge for now, at the end of the day Jaheira is still the leader. Neera said that was fine by her.
So, we went and checked out some more gardens, with Neera in tow, and her talking our ears off the whole way. Apparently, she's a wild mage what had to run away from home after a nasty accident hurt some of her fellow apprentices. I've got to admit, it was not very encouraging, but I'm sure everything will be fine. What's the worst that could happen?
About a half hour after that, we were approached by a man what called himself Garrick, and he wanted to know if we could help his boss, who had some thugs after her. Well, it was about around lunchtime then, Mr. Journal, but we figured it wouldn't take too long to hear this lady out, and we could always eat after. So, Garrick took us to her, this lady called Silke what was supposed to be some real famous actress. But, really, Mr. Journal, she was so overblown and melodramatic about everything I'd be surprised if she could act herself out of a paper bag.
Anyway, Silke asked us to take care of some thugs for her, but when they showed up, they weren't thugs at all! In fact, the way they were acting, it sounded more like Silke had hired them to get something for her and she just wanted to get out of paying. We refused to hurt the men, since they were clearly innocent, and Silke got real steamed at us for it. She straight up attacked us, Mr. Journal. She went down real quickly, though, because when Neera cast a magic missile at her, it suddenly turned into a whole barrage of them and they all hit her at once. Mr. Journal, I have learned today that wild magic is abso-freaking-lutely awesome. A bit overkill and a little disturbing, but awesome nonetheless.
Garrick was real upset when he realized Silke had been playing him for a fool, and asked if he could come along with us instead. Unfortunately for him, we couldn't take him up on that offer, because being the party bard is my job. But since it was already past lunchtime and me and Immy were starving, we invited him to come eat with us and offered to treat him to a meal. I was pretty keen on talking to him, after all. Not very often I get to chat with another bard.
We nipped into the Red Sheaf Inn to get a late lunch, since it was real close-by. Garrick's a pretty interesting fellow, but he mostly since lyrical ballads and love songs and whatnot. That's different from what I do. I just don't understand why he'd settle for that though. I mean, any old sod can sing the popular songs of the day, but what we do? It's an art. Don't see what the point of barding is if you're not telling tales of grand heroes and epic battles. Or at the very least, writing a few of your own songs.
Our lunch was rudely interrupted, though, when another thrice-dratted rat-faced assassin showed up. The seediest dwarf you ever did see, Mr. Journal. Garrick freaked out and ran off once the fighting started. Haven't seen him since. This assassin was a lot tougher than the others. Me, Immy and Neera were barely able to take him down. Somehow, we survived, though. I guess splitting up was maybe a dumb idea, but I think the day we had was worth it.
After seeing our combat prowess, one of the guys at the bar asked if we could get back his sword what was stolen by gnolls. I told him we already had a lot on our plate and couldn't go out looking for his sword, but if we actually ran into the gnolls what took it, we'd give them what for.
After lunch, we went to the Thunderhammer Smithy to do some shopping, because sod diamonds, proper weapons are a girl's real best friend. We got a nice quarterstaff for Neera, an off-hand sword for Immy, and backup bosshammers for me and Branwen, because hell if I'm going without one again. This one I have now was made before we solved the crap in the Nashkel mines, even if I bought it after, and I don't want to deal with it if the damn thing breaks again. I also bought a real nice sling and some bullets what I'm planning on giving to Xan so he doesn't have to go rushing the enemy line with that glowy sword of his all the time.
When we got back to the inn, we introduced Neera to everyone else. They all seem to get along pretty well so far, which is good. It's nice to have new friends, especially when they get along with current ones. Xan's a little leery of her though, he says that exposing ourselves to the dangers of wild magic through her is just like begging to get ourselves killed. But I'm not too worried, as he says that kind of thing about pretty much everyone we meet and everything we do. In fact, Mr. Journal, it's actually kind of a relief to see him acting like himself again, instead of, I don't know, some half-coherent sleepy zombie man or something.
I'm up in my room right now, writing and organizing my things. I'm going to go downstairs for dinner with everyone soon, where me and Immy will tell the others about stuff we learned today, and we'll all discuss what's best for us to do next.
P.S. Forgot to add this in earlier, but on our way back we also talked to this one lady what was waiting on news from her husband. Turns out we actually had a letter from him with us. Got it on our way up to Beregost, off an ogrillon what had killed the halfling courier who'd been carrying it. She was real grateful and gave us a neat magic ring.
P.P.S. After hearing what the townsfolk had to say about us, Immy thinks she should choose a name more befitting of a hero and she's now calling herself "Imoen the Quick". I'm still calling her Immy though. It's easier.
A/N: For the record, though this particular journal is based on a vanilla playthrough, the "Imoen the Quick" thing is a reference to a line in the BG1 NPC Project. So, had to mention that, give credit where it's due and all. Also, a note about Linn and Imoen's conversation in the Burning Wizard - In the original draft of the journal, which I wrote in-game, Imoen actually thought Linn had a crush on Xan and not Rasaad. Linn denies it and goes on to tell her journal that Xan is not really her type but she could see herself falling for Rasaad. I changed it because I thought it made more sense for Imoen to actually read Linn correctly and pick up on her crush on Rasaad before even she did. The reason it was written another way originally was because I back when I started this playthrough a couple years ago I actually posted around the first 25 days of the journal's rough draft on the official Baldur's Gate forums as I played. After Day 10 or so a good chunk of the people in the thread had started shipping Linn with Xan even though I was actively trying to start Rasaad's romance this playthrough. The original passage was an ill-conceived attempt at saying "no silly she doesnt like Xan she likes Rasaad", with Imoen as a stand-in for the readers. It was a bad idea and very poorly written, so I changed it this time around. I hope this version of the passage is better. Anyways, I've blathered long enough, so time for the old song and dance - if you liked this chapter, please review, fave, and follow. Thanks and see you all next time!