Everything was a whole lot easier with Viconia. Most of the undead that approached them ran when presented the holy symbol, and that let them progress with relative ease. Shadow wolves and the ghosts of thieves were herded into corners where Damiondread would stand at a distance and practice with his brothers sword, slowly getting into the swing of things. He could see why Sarevok had liked the sword so much.
One awkward climb into one sarcophagus and out another later, and he was sorely missing the shortsword he had used in in the past though. The large weapon clanged against the stone, sending shards of rock flying as the armored ghost lunged with a longsword and scraped it off of his ribs, prevented from dipping deeper only because of the shimmer of black and red that cushioned the blow and largely turned it aside. It wasn't the first one, either, and he was beginning to regret proverbially volunteering to be the front line fighter. A barrage of magic missiles drove the undead back long enough for Viconia to step in and press a hand against the bhaalspawn's back, sending a wave of healing magic through him and sealing his most recent wounds with a prayer to Shar.
Finally, their foe went down, leaving Viconia to prod the remains of the armor with the tip of the staff of curing that they had found. Sifting through the small pile, she nudged the iron rod out to the side before stooping to pick it up and eye it critically. The bhaalspawn leaned over slightly to peer at it, frowning.
"That looks like it would fit in that spot by the door we came in through. Welp, time to head back and see if Not-Clara locked us in here or not."
Surprisingly, she hadn't, and as the party slotted the iron rod into its spot by the door she even pointed to how the way out had closed and locked before waiting a moment and removing the rod, re-opening the way out. It brought a wave of relief from the bhaalspawn as he slotted the rod back into place once more and they resumed their exploration. All seemed to be going well until they stepped into a room to see a man in red trimmed, black plate with a somewhat ratty purple cloak.
"What is this I see before me? Are you real, man, or or does my mind play tricks upon me?"
Xzar hissed, tugging hard on the bhaalspawn's sleeve. "Vampire! Only your sword and our magic will strike it!"
"Ah. Yes. I'm real." Damiondred nodded slightly to Xzar, before clearing his throat. "I'm looking for a sleeper that I'm getting paid really well to awaken. Seen anyone like that around?"
Glowing red eyes narrowed, before settling on the thief standing a few feet behind the bhaalspawn and growling as he drew a sword. "Hexxat! How many more fools will you sacrifice before you realize you will never escape this place?"
"Never is a long time, Dragomir."
He should have seen it coming, really. Xzar had given them all a general run down on the basic abilities of the undead that they expected to encounter but he had gotten sloppy. In preparing to swing at the vampire he made the mistake of looking directly at it and briefly meeting its gaze. Suddenly, everything fell into place, and he realized that this fine, upstanding gentleman was really a nice guy, and that the people he had come in with were in the wrong, traipsing around the tomb and killing the undead that guarded it. Dragomir just couldn't be a bad guy, could he? Just look at how he tried to non-lethally disarm Xzar! It certainly wasn't his fault that the necromancer was stuffing his dagger between the vampires teeth, trying to keep them at bay.
"Xzar! Xzar, no, it's okay. Stop trying to hurt him, everything will be okay."
"Abbil! This is a vampire! It is trying to eat us!" Viconia looked over from where she was trying to peel Dragomir off of the pinned necromancer, only to squint suspiciously. "... Damiondred, Abbil, put the sword down."
"I can't let you hurt him, Viconia. I'm sorry."
"Vith'ir, he is charmed!"
"Then DO something about it!" Xzar spat the words out while Not-Clara looked dimly at how her arrows were ineffectually falling out of the vampire that had sunk his teeth into the arm of the necromancer's robes and come up with a mouthful of fabric, leather, and one of the daggers he had strapped to his forearm. Yoshimo tried to lever the flat of his sword between them and hauled, gaining the former zhent an inch of space before the kara-turan was knocked back and into one of the walls with an almost careless sweep of one of Dragomir's arms. "He lusted after you before, maybe he won't strike you!"
"He's right, you know. I'd hate to have to hurt you, but you're helping them try to hurt my friend." The bhaalspawn eased closer, tip of the sword raising as he quirked a brow. "Please move. I can still save him, there's still time."
The drow pursed her lips before sighing and stepping aside. Damiondred positively beamed as he stepped forward, intent on swatting Yoshimo as he returned to the fray only to come up short as two black skinned hands snapped up to catch him by the shirt and hauled downwards, twisting him mid-stride and catching him off balance. Dark lips met pale ones, and the bhaalspawn stiffened in surprise before the tip of the sword of chaos thunked dully against the ground. Their lips parted, and Viconia licked hers before nipping at the corner of his mouth and shifting onto the tips of her toes to murmur into his ear.
"But... But he's my frie-"
She shook him, growling before nipping at his rapidly reddening earlobe. He swallowed dryly, eyes settling on the trio struggling against the side of a sarcophagus, and hefted the sword. Xzar's eyes widened fractionally as he saw the bhaalspawn incoming.
There wasn't a lot of finesse when it came to attacking people from behind, anyone could do that. What separated the rogues from the petty thieves was the ability to turn a strike from behind into a thread-the-needle backstab, able to do exponentially more damage by targeting the weak points and striking often upwards at an angle. This, unfortunately, required a fair bit of delicacy and the ability to use their manual dexterity to weave a shorter blade through a kidney and then up under the ribs, catching a lung or other potentially vital organ in the process. Much harder to do with a longsword, let alone an oar of a sword like Sarevok's two-hander, even discounting the potential of accidentally catching anyone in close combat with the greatsword, but damned if the bhaalspawn didn't try.
He hit the vampire along the side, under the ribs in an upwards, angled strike that lifted it from its feet briefly and sent it staggering a few feet to the side while Xzar slumped to the ground, pressing a hand to where he had been bitten to try and staunch the bleeding. Dragomir hissed at Damiondred, who shrugged apologetically and shifted uncomfortably where he stood.
"Sorry, it's just... It's not like it actually could kill you, right? You just turn to smoke, and she said-"
"Abbil! You keep me waiting, and every moment that passes is another that I do not make good on my words!"
The bhaalspawn turned red in the face once more, and raised the sword.
"It drained some of your life-essence."
"A restoration should do it. This is not our first encounter their kind." Xzar rubbed at the pink lines that marked where new flesh had sealed the hole in his jugular. He leaned to he side and spat out a mouthful of blood while blinking up at the cleric. "You do good work, as always, and this one is ever impressed with your skillful manipulation."
"I do not think Abbil agrees with me." Viconia's tone was dry as she glanced over to where the bhaalspawn was quietly and thumping his forehead against the wall. Sarevok's sword was leaned against the wall beside him. "I had always suspected, but that it would be strong enough to counter the effects of a charm..."
"Men are often very stupid when it comes to women, and that one moreso than most. Unless Baeloth taught him in three hours more than most men learn in three decades? We doubt that he would have stood a chance. Help us up?" Offering out a hand, the necromancer grunted as he was helped to his feet, wobbling slightly before he found his balance. "Though, it must be advised that, as you now know, leniency be taken. Doubtless he would have preferred to tell you in his own time."
"He can hear you, you know."
"Yes yes." Xzar flapped his hands at where Damiondred had sullenly addressed them from before looking back at the very amused cleric of Shar. "As his priest, we can personally vouch for the the sanctity of his character. The divine heritage surely must mean it would be a nigh heavenly experi-"
"XZAR!"
The necromancer held his hands up, grinning at the flustered Bhaalspawn as Yoshimo returned from where he had slipped away to scout ahead.
"Yoshimo has returned! ... What did I miss?"
"Nothing! So help me Xzar, I will flay you myself." Damiondred shouldered the sword before turning to the bounty hunter, utterly ignoring the muttered 'do not threaten us with a good time' as he surveyed the returned Kara-Turan. "What did you find?"
"Nothing, except for a patch of magic that made me feel sick to go near two lengths of your sword long."
"We... There. The treasure is there." Not-Clara turned from where she was staring blankly at the floor and started to head the way Yoshimo had come from, prompting the rest to look at each other and then start scrambling to catch up. The bhaalspawn sighed as he moved, muttering under his breath.
"Oh boy, treasure. I sure hope it's not a metaphorical one like friendship."
"And that's how we met Hexxat. The real Hexxat. Clara went back home, compulsion lifted. Hexxat, this is Jaheira, Minsc, and...?"
"Nalia de'Arnise. Jaheira and Minsc helped rescue my home from an invasion of trolls." She smiled, and the bhaalspawn nodded his head politely and looked towards the elf.
"Oh! I'm... I'm Aerie."
"Minsc's new witch! He will protect her as they travel the world, right Boo?" The hamster squeaked agreement as Aerie blushed faintly, giggling.
"We saved her from the promenade, where a gnome illusionist had gotten out of hand." Jaheira sipped her tea, eyeing Xzar as the necromancer dozed idly in his chair. "What is wrong with the Grave Robber?"
"Life drained by the vampire we fought. Viconia is going to take care of it in the morning and then we're going to spend the day looking for jobs so that once she's rested we can start tackling them via itemized list. Which, I should say, it's getting pretty late. Everyone should get some rest or tend to whatever they need to before hitting the sack." Damiondred waved his hand idly, before pushing his chair back from the table and rising to his feet. A gentle nudge had Xzar muttering in tongues as he was roused, only to blink owlishly and start pushing himself to his feet to follow. Hexxat and Viconia also pushed themselves away from the table, muttering polite goodbyes and following the two humans as they left the building.
"Hexxat, keep an eye out for Yoshimo. None of us trust him, and I'll give you the full story once we get back to Xzar's. Which... Does remind me, we should consider getting a new base of operations."
"You trust me, but not a human you freed me with?"
"You literally handed me the only way that you can come back, whereas I met him under suspicious circumstances. While I -am- somewhat worried that he might tell Jaheira and the others about what you are I'm more worried about him trying to ship me back to Irenicus before I'm ready. Besides, we could use someone who doesn't need to sleep to keep watch, and in case you hadn't noticed my right-hand man is a necromancer. If nothing else, you can share kills and eat together, keeping an eye out for trouble and staying safer."
"There is also the fact that the Dark Lady will no longer be the only girl in the group." Xzar yawned tiredly as they walked, rolling his shoulder and blinking blearily about in the light of the street lamps.
"Well, that too, but I like to think that I judge merit based on what people can or can't do rather than what their dangly bits look like." The bhaalspawn peered around, humming to himself as Hexxat laughed and the drow snickered. "Anyone else hear the sound of people dying? Yes? Thought so. Let's go get you two a late night snack."
Not going to lie, I -really- like Hexxat. The problem is that she's only in my party for fun, not functionality, as I generally take care of any traps with the main character. His job is to turn himself invisible, scout, find and remove traps, then run back out of view and start launching fireballs. Something I've noticed in BG2:EE is that they made it more difficult to do this, as the AI's for the NPC's now run in the direction the spell came from. Right into Dorn wielding the sword of chaos, but it limits how much fireballing and cheesing i can do.
My first ever character was a bard, which was a bad choice. I ended up standing in the back with bard song toggled, with all my spell slots set to identify, knock or invisibility. I didn't know what I was doing, but damned if I wasn't going to make sure they stayed alive. Fighter/mage/thief is so much better! Keep in mind, this was back before the separate types of bard were available. I played a blade in my second run through of bg2 and I had a heck of a good time doing the spin to win with Haer'dalis.
You may notice that Dami is a bit more talkative in this one, and has a little bit of a different attitude. He -was- just tortured for three months, after all, and has a whole lot few hecks to give for other people now that his world is down to 'them', 'us' and 'undecided'.
Nimloth! I think Gorion would have d'aww'd a little bit at how the flying snake is named after him, and then recoiled when he realized that Damiondred is deliberately feeding people to now two party members. The bhaalspawn's one redeeming feature in this regard is that he tries to make sure it's people who deserve it rather than just random civilians. Still, it's pretty solidly an evil act.
Also, re: Viconia's actions, there are a thousand stories of brothers, best friends, people who would otherwise never betray one another stabbing each other in the back because a woman they had a soft spot for convinced them to. Being a child of murder only made it easier.
Questions? Concerns? Consistency issues?
Leave a message after the tone,
-KD