I am currently doing the druid grove quest on one of my numerous characters, and have a tiny ethical dilemma. A part of me would like to take the evil plot course, as I have never taken it before, but some other part sort of wants to roleplay, at least a little bit, and really can't think of a reason for a Chaotic Evil takes-what-he-wants-if-he-thinks-he-can-get-away-with-it character to want to side with some insignifigant halfling.

If I poison the grove, the High Merchant of Trademeet, most non-merchant people (farmers, artisans, and so on) and all druids of the Sword Coast will hate me. I gain the favour of some short megalomanic merchant no one's ever heard about. Plus, he's probably just using me and might consider washing his hands from the whole ordeal, claiming he's never met me, and refusing to pay.

If I don't poison the growe, some halfling will hate me. I gain the favour of the High Merchant of Trademeet and the local druids will praise my good deeds. The High Merchant, I would say, is also much less likely to try to cheat me in any way than the hobbit.

Can anyone think of a justification for me to poison the grove? I can't.

If Jahiera's in your party and complaining, you might want to give her something real to complain about. Petty roleplaying reasons like that can work.

No Jaheira, but that works for Cernd too. Hmm. Destroying a druid grove just because I dislike one person. That sounds like fun.

Now, I hadn't expected this. Guildmistress Busya is in no way offended that I just killed a small bit of the earth itself. Good that someone appreciates my efforts.

The Druid Grove isn't exactly killed, it will just take many, many years to recover. Which might be exactly the kind of lesson you want to teach the surviving Druids: That's what happens when you let a Shadow Druid take over, use forbidden rituals to bind herself with the earth, and then get herself whacked, so that her death wounds Nature itself, and the healing process takes a long, long time.

Which, of course, is really nothing like how it actually went down, but hey, if the Bhaalspawn says that's what happened, then that's what happened.

[ 06-18-2006, 04:02 AM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

I didn't know you could poison it...

you only get the option if your main character is evil iirc

nope. it depends on reputation, not on alignement.

Poisoning the grove doesn't help the protagonist in the slightest. He doesn't get the favour of powerful people, he can't really expect a reward bigger than the one he gets for not poisoning it, and it isn't really much easier to do it that way. So the protagonist must either genuinely want to help the halfling, or really hate the druids.

So, the only people who would poison the grove are psychotic madmen (who are in it for the killing, not the money) and, interestingly, good people.