Something bad happened. I talked to Ariel in her illusion form and was told to get her sword. I found the fake humans who are really the monster and killed them even though they wouldn't talk to me. Thus getting the key to free her but she wouldn't talk to me. I have no close save game is there any thing I can do?

Her name is Aerie, not Ariel. ;)

The $64,000 is, are you fully patched?

(There should also be an auto-save either when you enter the tent or when you get past the djinn. Believe me, these are close save games. Reload your auto-save, and see what happens.)

Pirengle I believe I am fully patched. I installed the official patch BGII-ThroneofBhaal_Patch_26498_ENGLISH.exe and the other onefrom the FAQ. My Auto-Save is after she won't talk to me so it's no good.

Do you have any Mods installed?

What was your installation order?

No Mods. I intalled
Shadows Of Amn
then Throne of Bhaal
then the bonus cd
then the offical patch
then the one from the faq

there's a v. 26499 official ToB patch. Try download and install that and see whether it would help. btw, you do know what that *key* to free Aerie is right?

What do you mean she wouldnt talk? Is it the "Aerie appears busy?" In that case its the patch that is needed...

If all fails I suppose you can CLUA her in and then ctrl-Y her.

Yeah it's that sword. I've freed her before

Yes I got the Appears busy. I restarted my closest saved game and made it there, now I can talk to her and she joined my group but anyone I talk to outside of the test says "blah b;ah appears busy" So now what?

You dont have an autosave before going to the circus?

He said that he saved over the autosave after getting the problem
Word of advice. NEVER make a save on a copy that you often use when you encounter a problem. Either don't save it at all or save it under a new slot.

No I accidently saved over it.

I have had the same problem in the past. But after instaling the latest ToB patch, everything was fine. The readme file says that the patch is meant to erase this special bug(and it does other good things, too).

Well, you can either

A) Cheat a new Aerie back into the game and hope it works this time,
B) Start over from your oldest Save--or right from the very beginning of the game, or
C) Plan your party with the knowledge that you're not going to be able to have Aerie.

Them's your options.