The lighthouse area with the Manual of Bodily Health was in the pretty western regions, somewhere between Beregost and Nashkel. Since we were going to pass by Beregost to get there, we stopped by High Hedge to purchase Thalantyr's Protection from Magic scroll. We now had 3 out of six of the scrolls available in BG1.
Honestly I wasn't sure where I was going to use them all. In BG1, the scrolls could only be used on oneself to protect from spells, whereas in BG2 onwards they can be used offensively on mages to prevent them from casting spells. I'm not fully certain which mage in the game could possibly warrant such a powerful item.
While we were here I also bought another Protection from Fire scroll. Eh, why not.
Other than the Protection from Magic scroll, had I missed anything else? I had to think hard about this.
As we were leaving High Hedge, Neera took notice of me in deep thought. "Are you having fun?" she asked with a smug smile.
That broke me out of my thoughts. I looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"
"We're on this big item collection run, right? So just wanted to know if you're having fun."
I taken aback by this line of questioning. She had the right of it, I guess. We hadn't been doing anything related to the main quest for some time. Just traveling across the Sword Coast, seeing the sights and collecting goodies.
I smiled to her. "Yeah, I'm having fun. I hope you are too."
Neera did a so-so wave with her hands. Upon seeing the look I was giving her, she broke into giggles. "Just kidding. Go, collect those fabulous treasures. We'll find a use for it," she said. "Or not. Eh, who cares."
I smiled back at her and we walked along.
I could have imagined it, but the rest may have been pointing at us and whispering. No idea what that's about.
---
We also finally, FINALLY, returned to Bjornin with news of the half-ogres we had killed.
"Fine work! News of the battle has reached me even here," Bjornin said with a big smile on his face.
"Uh, it wasn't that significant a battle," I said. Not out of false modesty. It really wasn't, at this stage.
"Nonsense! You did well to rid the Sword Coast of miscreants who are operating so close to Beregost where others did not," Bjornin said, clapping me on the back. "In an effort to encourage such deeds of righteousness, allow me to present you this shield. The Sword Coast needs more heroes of your sort, especially in times as dark as these."
And not a single comment about my height or how I did well for someone of my stature! Paladins are great, folks. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.
The shield he gave us was a Medium Shield+1. Excellent in the early stages of the game, pretty redundant for us now. It's the thought that counts.
---
Traveling to the lighthouse area took some time, so thankfully we were all used to travel by now. In the original game, if you traveled far the game assumed you did so without camping along the way, which was super odd. We didn't have that problem here, so we could camp along the way without issue.
Along the way, I had some time to consider what other items I may have missed. Have I really? I was now grabbing the Manual of Bodily Health for +1 constitution, I still have two more Protection from Magic scrolls, one bought from Halbazzer and one with Bentan at Firewine. The one with Bentan is easily missed since one has to pickpocket it from him.
… AH! I left out one item to pickpocket! There's a Ring of Free Action in Ulgoth's Beard! Tch, who has it again? Think it was one of the gnomes waiting outside. Thinking about it, Shandalar and other folks in Ulgoth's probably had a lot of nice loot too. I should probably make a round of collecting donations to our cause there.
---
At Branwen's current level, the skeleton warriors, uh, skeleton bulls she summoned with the Animate Dead spell were now 5 hit-dice skeletons armed with magic +1 weapons. Magic horns +1, in our case.
I wasn't sure what I was expecting to encounter first, but it sure as heck wasn't two multiple groups of hobgoblins and hobgoblin elites. There had to be at least fifteen of them, if not more.
"Haha, you die now!" the hobgoblins said sniggering as they drew their poisoned bows. 16 hobgoblins vs five adventurers? Easy pickings for their large band.
When the skeleton bulls, which resisted arrows and were immune to poison, came into view the smiles on the hobgoblins faded. It was now 16 vs 10. "We still have the advantage in numbers! Kill them!" one hobgoblin cried out, who then died immediately to a quarterstaff+3 to the back of the head.
The others turned around to meet the new threat in their flanks, and Khalid sped forward with frightening speed to cut another down. Then the Sleep spells came forth, hitting the two groups of hobgoblins. It was now 4 vs eleven. The look of confidence on the hobgoblin's faces turned to terror, even more so when even one single warrior was effortlessly cutting them down.
In the end, we cleaned up the hobgoblins with only one skeleton bull taking an arrow to one of its rib bones. (Nope, not to the knee!)
---
A woman dressed in robes most unsuitable for traveling was grumbling as soon as she saw us. "I know why you're here. It's the same reason everyone else comes to see me, and you shall get the same answer. I do NOT know when the iron shortage will let up, I have NO CLUE as to who controls the bandits in the area, and I have NO INTEREST in accompanying you to the gambling tables in Baldur's Gate."
This was Pallonia, and in case it wasn't obvious she's a star-gazing astrologer of sorts.
"Well in that case, what do you see?" I asked.
"Well, just across the southern mountains there are troubles brewing in great Amn that will make our current concerns seem small by comparison. To the far north there is a city where winter never rears its ugly head: a city that has not been seen nor heard from for many a year, but will soon welcome the return of a multitude of citizens. Both of these events will unfold regardless of our current troubles. Great may be our concerns, but much more is on the horizon. Leave me be, I have much to think upon."
To the south, a certain wizard was causing trouble in Athkatla, capital city of Amn, driving the events of BG2. To the north was Neverwinter, no doubt, the troubles which are presented in Neverwinter Nights 1. Or Neverwinter Nights 2, I don't know..
Basically, Pallonia was a walking advertisement. Very subtle, game devs.
---
A group of three sirines shrieked at us with bows drawn, and started casting Improved Invisibility. We managed to interrupt one with volley fire, and I completely fluffed my backstab on another. The sirine my quarterstaff+3 had missed sneered at me, but my backswing landed with a crack against her arm, interrupting her spell. That left one sirine which managed to become invisible.
We didn't have time to wait for me to detect where she was with my paltry detect illusion skill of 20, so Imoen cast Detect Invisibility to reveal it. I knew we were facing sirines, so of course I had someone prepare the spell.
Visible and vulnerable, the three sirines went down to us and our small army of poison and charm immune skeleton bulls.
Not long later, we came upon a second group of sirines. At least this one bothered to say something before attacking.
"This is not your place. This is the home of Sil's tribe! Dirty land folk, you shall suffer for your trespass," the leader screamed at us.
I forgot, do sirines refer to themselves in the third person? Or was it just Sil?
To my horror, I fluffed my backstab on her as well! Still, I managed to catch her with my next strike before she could turn invisible and the rest of the party managed to interrupt the other two. Without their Improved Invisibility, they didn't last long in a melee vs opponents who were immune to their effects.
---
The cave guarded by Sil was guarded by, of all things, flesh golems. Flesh golems are a staple of wizards, such as the ones employed by Thalatyr in High Hedge. How did flesh golems even get there in the first place? Were they created by Sil and the sirines? Anyway, each flesh golem went down to volley fire of magical ammunition easily enough. The guardians dispatched, we were free to loot the treasure collected in a pile deep within the cave.
Loot : Wand of Paralyzation, Darts of Wounding (x10), Potion of Infravision, Potion of Absorption, Elixir of Health, Antidote, Manual of Bodily Health (+1 Constitution permamently),
and the Cloak of the Wolf.
I had pretty much forgotten the Cloak of the Wolf was here. I had come here for the Manual of Bodily Health, to increase my Constitution to 19. This jacked my 89hp to 96. It's a pity I couldn't raise my Constitution all the way to 20, which would have given me actual regeneration of 1hp every 60 seconds.
The Cloak of the Wolf on the other hand was a magic item that allowed the user to change into the form of a wolf and back at will. The wolf form had 18 strength, 17 Dexterity, and 2APR, but was otherwise really underwhelming. BG1 really wasn't so reactive a game that the wolf form could be used for spying on people unnoticed or any other type of creative use, unfortunately.
With this loot, we now had FOUR Wands of Paralyzation. That's pretty much enough charges of Paralyzation to paralyze every significant enemy remaining in the game, if we so chose. I should probably start using these things on anything that presented a significant threat. Maybe, I don't know. It's not as good as having the four Necklace of Missiles, seeing as how only mages could use the Wands of Paralyzation but anyone could use the Necklaces.
I wasn't entire sure what enemy group would need me to throw 4 Necklace of Missiles explosions and two fireballs from Neera and Imoen though. Each Necklace of Missiles does 6d6, the fireballs would be another 8d6 and 9d6, for a total of 6+6+6+6+8+9= 41d6 AoE fire damage or 143.5 average damage. Maybe I'm overdoing my loot collection?
Naaaah.