As I said before, the true chronological order of our actions involved us moving in a cloakwise manner around the city before visiting the central region and doubling back to the Lady's Hal in the west. So after visiting Ghorak's house the first time, before we went north to the Three Keg's to fetch his brother's skull, we had stopped by another house nearby Ghorak's.
At this house, I explained to the party, some fishermen had apparently captured a sirine recently. I wanted to check if the fools were willing to let the sirine go.
What we found instead was a blue-skinned woman surrounded by bodies.
"Stay away from me, dirt men! Come no closer!"
"Calm yourself, we have come to free you from your torment and return you to the ocean," Jaheira said.
The sirine glared at Jaheira in shock, then laughed bitterly. "You're too late. It is… too late for Larraiz. Larriaz never reach the ocean in time."
Huh. So referring to themselves in the third person IS a thing sirines do. Funny that.
The men on the ground around Larriaz were fishermen who had caught her, taken her to their home, then tried to take advantage of her. She killed everyone in the household, and both her tormentors perpetrators and everyone else who had stood by and let it happen. Such was the price paid for attempting to commit such cruel acts on so dangerous a creature.
There were really quite a few men in the city trying to take advantage of supernatural women of beauty in Baldur's Gate. Ragefast, Ramazith, now these fishermen.
"Is there anything we can do for you? Perhaps ease the pain?" I asked.
Behind me, Imoen and Khalid were looking away, distraught.
"Can't help Larriaz. She wish to die alone! Get out! GET OUT! Larriaz no want stupid dirt men watch her die."
We bid her goodbye and stepped out. As we did so, we heard Larriaz say, "Thank you for letting Larriaz die in peace."
We reported the incident to the Flaming Fist, and asked them to post a warning to citizens to stay away from all supernatural creatures of the wild, and certainly not attempt to take advantage of the beautiful ones.
On our part, we would make sure to retell this warning in every tavern we visited for all to hear.
---
After such a downer, I definitely wanted to hit something. Someone who deserved it. Luckily for us, there were such willing punching bags nearby.
I tried to explain to the group. "Intel from thieves' guild is a bit odd this time. A group of assassins are waiting for me in this particular house."
"I can't help but notice the house is locked," Branwen said, poking at the door handle. "What assassin lays waiting to ambush someone in a locked house?"
I started to sweat a little. "Uh… I dunno?"
"Assassins who are very familiar with Sonny's particular proclivities, clearly," Neera said, her eyes narrow. "Maybe you're being a tad predictable, hrrrrrm?"
Imoen's mouth opened and said, "Ahhhhh, that makes sense. Since Sonny loves burglaring so much-"
"Alright, discussion done. We're wasting these fools, post haste."
This was a group of five ogre magi, 3 of which were invisible. This particular group of ogre magi had a lot of nasty spells to cast. Confusion, Horror I think. The fact that some of them started invisible and I wasn't having much luck spotting them didn't help.
(I suspect that Detect Illusions doesn't work on invisible neutral enemies. That or the effect from the Sandthief ring doens't count as an Illusion or something)
When we entered, a voice boomed out from an open space, "Little pink one. The son of Murder offers 10,000 gold for the head of Sonny, and we shall have it."
They started incanting their spells in our direction. How nice of them to stand in place for us!
"What you'll get-," I said which chucking a bottle in their midst, "-is a bonfire."
Being invisibly doesn't make them immune to fire, after all. 5d6 from an Oil of Fiery Burning, 8d6 from Imoen's Fireball and 9d6 from Neera's = about 77 average damage, or 38.5 if they make every save. They had 39 hp in the first place, so they weren't likely to survive such a barrage. The Oil of Fiery Burning interrupted their spells, while the Fireballs finished them all off.
Now that I had the 4 Necklaces of Missiles, I really didn't need to hold on to all these Oils of Fiery Burning and Potions of Explosions.
I did a little stretch after the battle. "Man, that hit the spot! Incinerating some fools who deserve it never gets old."
Neera gave me some side eye. "Sometimes, Sonny, I worry about you."
I grinned at her remark, but the grave look on her face gave me pause. Instead, I turned to the rest of the team. "What did they call their client who hired them? The son of Murder?"
How do these ogre mages even know to call their client the son of Murder, anyway? Eh, I doubt the game writers thought about that too hard.
"He did say that, didn't he?" Neera said. "Is it a figure of speech, or…"
Her voice trailed off, and she looked to Jaheira and Khalid.
On their part, Jaheira and Khalid looked at each other. "Son of Murder sounds a bit too specific to me," Jaheira said. "I don't know what someone called the Son of Murder would want with you, however. Gorion and the higher ups in the Harpers didn't tell us that much."
Khalid looked at the charred corpses of the ogre mages. "Would have been good if we kept one alive for questioning."
Imoen snapped her fingers. "Who's the current god of Murder?"
"Cyric," Branwen answered. "Not originally, mind. Cyric slew Bhaal during the Time of Troubles, when the gods were walking the earth as mortals. Long story, not relevant. Anyway, in doing so, he absorbed Bhaal's domain over Murder."
"We have been fighting priests of Cyric. But Cyric is known for his domain over trickery and lies, not murder which was absorbed," Jaheira said, cocking her head. "Maybe were dealing with a worshiper of Bhaal, one of the dead three."
"Elminster and Entillis kept going on about your lineage, but now it's someone else's lineage that seems special. Somehow, that doesn't sound like a coincidence. Same lineage, or rival lineage maybe," Imoen said, and also cocked her head to the side. "Son, though? Does Cyric or Bhaal have children?"
Branwen shook her head. "Not that I know of."
Oh, wow. As it turns out, my party is actually quite smart. They've almost deduced the whole truth just based on the clues available. Well, to be fair, we've had quite a bit of clues being thrown at us by now and the incident with the palm reader was quite memorable. What they were missing to make the leap was knowledge that we were not privy to. Since I wasn't privy to such knowledge either, I couldn't reveal that I knew what the correct answer was. At least, not to anyone other than Neera.
---
While I was in the SW area, I checked out the store near the Merchant League's Estate to sell some of the gems we got from the Ogre Magi. My eyes practically fell out of their sockets when I saw what the store had in its stock. "You've got a Girdle of Bluntness?!?"
"This one's called the Destroyer of the Hills," the shopkeeper remarked with a grin. "Caught your eye, I see."
I don't remember this item being sold in an unmarked store at all! Holy crap, must be an Enhanced Edition change. I already had one but another was most welcome. It was fortunate I was going around checking if I missed anything, or I'd not be able to buy this premium item for a measly 1k gold.
---
We were still in SW Baldur's Gate. There, an ambush lay in wait for us in one of the houses.
"Down with your weapons, NOW!" a lone woman commanded the party when they walked in. "Pardon the cliché, but this can be quick and easy, or long and painful. What will it be?"
Just like with the lone hobgoblin? Jaheira, at the lead of the group, snorted. "I don't see anyone but you. If you're a one-woman ambush, you can't expect us to give up."
The woman smiled wickedly. "Don't you fret. I'm not a one-woman ambush, there are three more of my friends hidden among the shadows. We're the best the Thieves' Guild got. If you want to give us trouble, then don't think you'll be walking out of here in one piece."
Jaheira's eyes roamed to and fro. She might have looked as if she was looking for the woman's friends, but I knew she was actually looking for me to resolve this peacefully. Thankfully she had the cow sense not to call out my name!
"We are actually on friendly terms with the Thieves' Guild. But in spite of that, I'm not inclined to show any mercy to those that threaten our lives," Jaheira said, her eyes landing back on the lone woman. "Choose your next action wisely. It could be your last."
The woman's wicked smile never faltered. "We'll see. Boys, let 'em have it!"
The woman's name was Wiven. In spite of being members of the thieves guild, Wiven is actually a conjurer and her three friends with bows are actually fighters, all level 6. Wiven might have cast Mirror Image then Horror on us if she hadn't been smacked over the head from behind with a Quarterstaff+3. As for the rest, Khalid, Jaheira and even Branwen engaged the archers so they each only got one arrow off before having to switch to their melee weapon. Neera and Imoen cast Blind on Jaheira and Branwen's archers to support them. Khalid didn't need the same consideration, cutting down his foe with Varscona+2 quickly.
Loot:
Short Sword +1, Arrow +1 (×35), Arrow of Fire (×50),
Potion of Master Thievery,
Mage scrolls of Protection From Normal Missiles, Ghost Armor.
"Well, here's hoping the thieves' guild doesn't mind us taking out their 'best'," I said. "If that's really what they were."
"We dealt with them easily, but isn't that because we're strong rather than they were weak," Jaheira retorted. "They could very well be the guild's best."
"That's not the reason I'm doubting their word. Thieves' guild members are supposed to burgle places, not murder people for money," I explained. "Murder brings too much heat to the guild for little profit. It's not how they operate, at least not normally."
Eh. We had the cow sense not to bring it up with Narlen and the rest in the guild, just in case.