a mix of questions [spoilers]

[Pirengle]

1: Why does Irenicus have the pommel jewel of the Equalizer, but the other parts of it are in the Underdark? Was this some sort of goodwill gift from the drow, or did Irenicus swipe a pretty trinket?

2: Continuing on that thought, why are the weapon pieces put in some of the weirdest places? Half of the Gesen bow is in Hidesman's basement/docks, and the other half's in the Underdark! And why in the world would a dragon, a mind flayer conclave, a statue, and cannibalistic halfling hold pieces to the great easter egg Crom Faeyr??? I can understand the Wave blade being in Shark City, but why is the shaft with the Warden in the Planar Prison?! Did he get a Sahuagin or Kuo-Toan prisoner with a funny-looking weapon piece and say "Gee, maybe if I hold onto this long enough, I can find more pieces!"?

3: What is up with the guy-with-four-names that attacks you outside the slums and later inside the Temple of Ilmater? Is it just another atmospheric piece (like Shank and Carbos or Garrick outside the Radiant Heart) or did he really have a purpose once upon a time?

4: The Myconid room in the slum sewers. Why is it there? The only room like it is a room in the Planar Sphere, and you never see Myconids without spore colonies except this room. Just another botched quest?

5: The Black Lotus reference at the gates: yet another unfinished quest?

6: If a romance dialogue comes up and you don't feel like answering it right then, can you say that you don't want to talk to that person (usually the last dialogue option) without your response affecting the romance?

7: During my latest game, Anomen would have a romance dialogue at the worst times. The Infamous Night™ happened in Firkraag's dungeon. Other important dialogues happened during battles or in the Demonic Plane or other unromantic locales. Is this supposed to be happening?

8: If you pry the experience cap off, is it possible to cast level 9 spells from your spellbook in SoA?

9: I've read a lot of posts about solo mages and odd parties. Has anyone ever played the entire game without mages, clerics, or bards?

10: What other unfinished quests are hidden in BG2? And why doesn't anyone try modding these loose ends back into the game?

[Indemaijinj]

3: Habib? An inconsequential character. Apparantly named after some guy in the BG1-community.

4: It is a mystery to everyone.

5: I think it's a way of showing that the Amnian police is thoroughly corrupt and drug trade is rampant. I think the "dangerous spell components" that you can let your guild thieves smuggle is merely an euphemism, but then again unsanctioned wizardry IS banned.

8: Yes!

9: I have 6-character party without any kind of magery because they are all half-orcs. They do have a cleric though.

10: This has been suggested really many times.

[Desuma Malevois]

4. IIRC it was supposed to be part of the Slaver/Twisted Rune/Guarded Compound quest that was never implemented.

[Moondog]

5. Must be part of an unfinished quest; there's the secret room in the Copper Coronet where the Lotus-smokers are; it has no function in the game.
10. -Jan Jansen quest; final showdown with Vaelag (could be wrong)
-Who sent the Trolls to invade Nalia's Keep (probably the Roenalls, but that's never revealed)?

[Tancred]

1) The description of the Pommel Jewel says:

'The Equalizer was last rumored to have been wielded by the elven hero Alaine Greenleaf, who was lost during a voyage to the Underdark. Other rumors have, however, proposed that the blade's pommel gem was stolen by an escaped slave who returned to the surface world.'

So... yes, I guess Irenicus stole it from the Elven city... they should have thought to check his luggage as he left.

6) No! Well, not often. Usually, telling the romancee that you don't want to talk to them at the moment will provoke a fit of pique. A refusal after that often kills the romance. Always always listen to 'em!

[ 03-23-2003, 05:13 PM: Message edited by: Tancred ]

[Gangrell]

1. As Tancred said.

2. For one, the other part of the Gesen Bow is not in the Underdark, it's in the Asylum. With it included, Wave, Crom Faeyr, they are all game artifacts which means it's supposed to be a challenge to find all the pieces. They wouldn't put both parts side by side and make it that easy.

3. Not sure.

4. Why not?

5. Haven't seen it yet.

6. Yes

7. Romance dialogues have triggers and clock set times. I've had them pop up in my fight in Hell and against Sendai in ToB.

8. Yes

9. Yes you can, but it is recommended that you have a cleric in your party to act as a medic.

10. I don't think there's such a thing as a hand-full of unfinished quests in the game, because the fact is they aren't quests if you can't finish them.

[ 03-23-2003, 06:49 PM: Message edited by: Gangrell ]

[pcgiant]

Originally posted by Pirengle the BNM: 1: Why does Irenicus have the pommel jewel of the Equalizer, but the other parts of it are in the Underdark? Was this some sort of goodwill gift from the drow, or did Irenicus swipe a pretty trinket?

Could be either, don't really know.

2: Continuing on that thought, why are the weapon pieces put in some of the weirdest places? Half of the Gesen bow is in Hidesman's basement/docks, and the other half's in the Underdark! And why in the world would a dragon, a mind flayer conclave, a statue, and cannibalistic halfling hold pieces to the great easter egg Crom Faeyr??? I can understand the Wave blade being in Shark City, but why is the shaft with the Warden in the Planar Prison?! Did he get a Sahuagin or Kuo-Toan prisoner with a funny-looking weapon piece and say "Gee, maybe if I hold onto this long enough, I can find more pieces!"?

According to the Wave's description, the hero who wielded it was lost and his halberd either lost at sea or somewhere in the planes. As you know, it was broken and one piece went to each place. :rolleyes Strange.

3: What is up with the guy-with-four-names that attacks you outside the slums and later inside the Temple of Ilmater? Is it just another atmospheric piece (like Shank and Carbos or Garrick outside the Radiant Heart) or did he really have a purpose once upon a time?

There was a competition held by Interplay/Bioware where people sent in their characters and they were put in the game. Habib is one example of this, and the named Paladin who sided with Anarg is another.

4: The Myconid room in the slum sewers. Why is it there? The only room like it is a room in the Planar Sphere, and you never see Myconids without spore colonies except this room. Just another botched quest?

Not sure about this one, just something interesting. Maybe the characterers were taken from somewhere else.

5: The Black Lotus reference at the gates: yet another unfinished quest?

Pretty much.

6: If a romance dialogue comes up and you don't feel like answering it right then, can you say that you don't want to talk to that person (usually the last dialogue option) without your response affecting the romance?

AFAIK, no.

7: During my latest game, Anomen would have a romance dialogue at the worst times. The Infamous Night™ happened in Firkraag's dungeon. Other important dialogues happened during battles or in the Demonic Plane or other unromantic locales. Is this supposed to be happening?

No, I don't think so. Lovetalks aren't meant to occur in dungeons.

8: If you pry the experience cap off, is it possible to cast level 9 spells from your spellbook in SoA?

AFAIK, yes.

9: I've read a lot of posts about solo mages and odd parties. Has anyone ever played the entire game without mages, clerics, or bards?

Yes, I have.

10: What other unfinished quests are hidden in BG2? And why doesn't anyone try modding these loose ends back into the game?

That I can recall right now: 1. Valygar and Suna Sei. 2. Haer'Dalis and his 'usual pruchase' from the merchant in the Bridge District. 3. Find the missing Priest of Helm, Guardian Herolde. 4. Twisted Rune and Slave lords and Lord Roenall. 5. Jan's quest to destroy Vaelag.

Cheers, pcgiant.

[Pirengle]

Originally posted by Moondog: 5. Must be part of an unfinished quest; there's the secret room in the Copper Coronet where the Lotus-smokers are; it has no function in the game.

Hmm...need to go up the staircase again in the CC...seems to be a lot of things I missed my first time around, and a lot more things I'm missing in my second.

Originally posted by Tancred: No! Well, not often. Usually, telling the romancee that you don't want to talk to them at the moment will provoke a fit of pique. A refusal after that often kills the romance. Always always listen to 'em!

"Anomen, as much as I want to inflate your ego about how good it is to be a knight of the Radiant Heart and get private access to my britches, I'm a little bit more concerned about those evil guys over there with the red circles around their feet that are trying to kill us!!!"

Another hoped-for dialogue down the drain.

PCgiant, about that magic-less party you had...can you tell me more about what you did? I'm thinking about an all-fighter party and posting great deeds here, kind of a nose-thumbing to the solo-magic-user people.

[SixOfSpades]

1: I'm going with the theory that it was a gift from the Drow. Since they are Evil, and mostly Chaotic at that, they may have destroyed the weapon on purpose. Whether they did or not, once 2 of the pieces were lost, they probably would have thought nothing of giving the last (useless) piece to a Mage who was interested in magical artifacts. Irenicus's involvement with the Drow obviously began long before he actually heads off to the Underdark in Chapter 4.

2: Hey, people just love collecting things, even if they serve no purpose. Remember Beanie Babies? Reijek may have liked the Gesen Shaft simply because it was illegal, Dragons desire all items of power, Halflings have low STR and therefore would be very interested in the Gauntlets....etc. Although justifing the Girdle of Frost Giant STR isn't quite so easy.

3: Already answered, but I'm going to put my 2 cents in as well. Those participants in the early BioWare forums who made lots of good suggestions were rewarded by having their screen names incorporated into the game, in a character of their own design.

4: The staircase that leads to the Myconid Room was originally meant to connect with the big sewer grating you see outside the Jansen Home. But being able to enter the Sewers directly from street level would have caused problems with the Copper Coronet/Slaver quest, so BioWare sealed the grating and put something--anything--in its place.

5: Yep.

6: Don't really know. Thankfully, most dialogues automatically Pause the game, so you can romance your sweetie even while a Dragon is chewing on your head. For comparison, try Fireballing Mencar Pebblecrusher before he has a chance to initiate dialogue.

7: It sounds like you haven't BaldurDashed your game: Romance dialogues and Messenger Events aren't supposed to happen in areas that are marked as "Dungeon." The unpatched version of the game had many mislabeled areas.

8: Yes, but note that not all of them are present (such as Bigby's Crushing Hand), or even available in scroll form at all (such as Improved Alacrity).

9: Every single class and kit has been Soloed through the game, and on Insane to boot. But I haven't heard much about entirely Magic-Free parties.

10: To combine and add to Moondog's and pcgiant's lists,

• The connection between the Twisted Rune and the Guarded Compound
• The connection between the Guarded Compound and the Slaver Ship
• The connection between the Slaver Ship and Baron Ployer (C'mon, they're RIGHT NEXT DOOR to each other!)
• The connection between Isaea Roenall and any of the above slavers
• The connection between Isaea Roenall and TorGal
• Haer'Dalis being framed for robbery and murder
• Jan's quest to kill Vaelag and win Lissa back
• The connection between the Hidden, the Illithids in the Sewers, Lady Jysstev, Uncle Gearhardt, and Lissa's damn kid
• Valygar's connection with Suna Seni and a mysterious Mage
• The Black Lotus quest (and Haer'Dalis's connection to it)
• Find the missing Priest of Helm, Guardian Herolde
• What the heck happened to the Nether Scroll, anyway

[ADD:] Some MODs have made attempts at patching together some of the above unfinished (or even unstarted) quests. For example, the BaldurDash Fixpack slightly alters one of the members of the Guarded Compound, so that when you kill him, he drops an item that provides a clue toward the Twisted Rune. Also, the Nalia Romance MOD tries to tie up the loose threads surrounding Isaea Roenall. [/ADD]

[ 03-23-2003, 09:03 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

[Pirengle]

Originally posted by SixOfSpades: 7: It sounds like you haven't BaldurDashed your game: Romance dialogues and Messenger Events aren't supposed to happen in areas that are marked as "Dungeon." The unpatched version of the game had many mislabeled areas.

Thing is, I have applied both the BD fixpack and the official patch to my game. Maybe I should try downloading and installing that particular component of the fixpack/buglist?