The potion store in this area sold a Potions of Magic Blocking, which blocked spells level 1 to 5 on the imbiber. A very nice potion really. I made it a point to buy all of Halbazzer and Black Lily's stocks of that potion. From Black Lily, I also bought the Sling of Unerring Accuracy (Thac0 +2) for Branwen and a Potion of Cloud Giant strength. That left me with 2.3k gold.
---
We're on a roll! Onward to the NW district.
We stopped by Degrodel's house. My going excuse was the mage here was looking for adventurer's according to thieves' guild intel.
Degrodel's house was guarded by 2 Helmed Horrors, 2 Doom Guards, and 3 Invisible Stalkers. Most certainly a challenging encounter. None of which dropped any loot, but were worth plenty of experience.
That is, if one could be bothered to fight them. The whole party had reached the experience cap, so we wouldn't get any benefits from doing so. Instead, I sneaked right past the guardians by myself until I came upon a mage in his bedroom.
He snorted in my direction. "I didn't expect such a... diminutive adventurer to bypass all my guardians. But perhaps size isn't everything. I should be angry with you, but to be truthful, I have been on the lookout for skilled adventurers. So, I would ask you, do you wish to help me in a task, or would you rather die?"
How rude! But to be fair, I had entered his home uninvited.
"Name your task," I said.
"First of all, my name is Degrodel. I can only assume that you're Sonny, the adventurer who has been stirring up so much trouble in the recent past. Now that Introductions are done, let us get down to business. My task is very simple. Some years ago, an evil band of mercenaries were all petrified while trying to break into the home of Ramazith. For those of you with a limited vocabulary, petrified means "turned to stone." Anyhow, one of those adventurers had in his possession an item of power: the Helm of Balduran. Ramazith didn't know this at the time and so, after turning them all to stone, he simply sold their bodies to an art collector living in the heart of Baldur's Gate. What I would like you to do is find these statues, turn them back to flesh, and take the item."
He offered me 5k gold for my services, and gave me 6 Stone to Flesh scrolls.
This was where players were supposed to gain clues about the Helm and Cloak of the Balduran, by the way.
Naturally, I had no intention of giving him such a powerful artifact. Furthermore, from memory I remembered that Degrodel had no intention of keeping his part of the bargain. He would take the helm and run off with it, leaving us to fight some more of his minions.
I walked out, then sneaked back right in and shoved a dagger right up Degrodel's behind.
No, I'm not using the quarterstaff+3 for this.
Degrodel, howled in pain, but to his credit managed to slip away and swung around with one hand clutching his behind and the other raised at me.
"You dare!?" he shrieked, and started performing the motions for a spell. "You will die for this audacity, puny -ERK!-"
Unforunately for Degrodel, his hand froze up in pain, interrupting his spell. That dagger I had stabbed him with was the Dagger of Venom +2, and he had failed to resist the poison. Degrodel had an AMAZING 60hp for a mage, too difficult to backstab in one hit even with the Quarterstaff+3. So the Dagger of Venom was the better solution.
"You were right the first time around," I said to Degrodel with the dagger held towards him meaningfully. "Size isn't everything."
Once I had dispatched him, I then sneaked out of his house, leaving behind his many guardians. That was that for Degrodel himself.
I conferred with my party about my findings from Degrodel's. "So there's this bunch of evil adventurers who got in trouble with Ramazith some time ago and got turned to stone. They're all currently statues in someone's manor."
"Okay, go on," Jaheira responded, not quite sure where I was going with this.
I showed them the 6 Stone to Flesh scrolls I got from Degrodel.
A moment passed. One by one, each member of the party got what I was getting at.
"So you're asking if we should we bother helping them?" Jaheira asked, to which I nodded. "That depends. How evil exactly?"
I shrugged. "They wanted to rob Ramazith apparently, but as you know Ramazith isn't a particularly swell guy himself. Apparently, they were the ones who found the nice Helm and Cloak of the Balduran that we're carrying around now, so maybe they might want it back."
This party of adventurers were the previous owners of these two artifacts. Degrodel had wanted me to convince them into giving the items to me, then pass them to him, after which Degrodel would betray us.
"So we may be inviting trouble to ourselves if we un-petrify these adventurers. Or not," Imoen said. "Doesn't sound very smart, yet leaving them as statues feels wrong too. Evil or not, it's not like they've actually done anything we wouldn't."
"Not everyone who is evil is a criminal," Branwen pointed out. "Some evil folks can be law-abiding and contributing members of society, if cruel and callous. These could be the opportunistic sort of adventurers who work within the confines of the law."
"I-if we're worried about them attacking us for the Helm and Cloak, we could hide the fact that we have the items when we save them," Khalid suggested.
"We'll be seen with the Balduran's Helm and Cloak eventually. There's no hiding the fact we are holding onto such unique artifacts forever. Besides, I won't feel bad putting them down if they want our blood," I said.
"It seems like you've already made your decision. We un-petrify these adventurers. What they do with their freedom shall decide their own fate," Jaheira said. The rest nodded in agreement.
---
When Vail had seen his party members turn to stone due to Ramazith's pet basilisk, he expected to remain a statue forever. Or be broken into pieces. So when he awoke to see his companions unpetrified and well, he was most pleasantly surprised. "I awake from dark slumber and see before me..."
…no one? Certainly it couldn't have been his companions who he had to thank for being unpetrified, since all of them were turned to stone before him.
"I'm right here."
Vail looked down and saw himself looking at a tiny halfling with a childlike face. Halflings were small enough as it is, so a small halfling was something to behold. He the urge to laugh. "…a deva! Certainly you must be such a creature to have rescued me," Vail said instead. "My name is Vail. Please honor me with your name as well."
"The name's Sonny. By the way, we killed Ramazith as well," the little one said. "As you can see, we have un-petrified all your party members. So you're all in good shape if you decide you want to kill us."
"Perish the thought" Vail exclaimed. "Why on Toril would we want to attack our benefactors? You even avenged us against Ramazith, the one who had petrified us."
He meant that sincerely, too. What was this halfling getting at?
The halfling pointed to the other people in the room, apparently his party members. Vail didn't realise what the little halfling was pointing at, at first, but his mouth fell wide open when he saw it.
"They… your friends. They are wearing the Helm of the Balduran. And the Cloak of the Balduran," Vail said, the despondency in his voice quite apparent, in spite of himself. "You've been busy, I see."
"We have indeed. And we intend to keep our prize, by the way," the halfling said with a crooked smile. Why was he smiling like that? "So, how about it? Going to attack your benefactors so you can take back your most prized possessions? I'm just a wee little halfling, waiting for a big strong elf like you to crush me after all."
Vail may have been tempted to do so, actually. But he could see the reactions of his whole party, and they were looking very uncomfortable at the notion. Two members of his party, Achen and Rance, we shaking their heads. Vail knew these two weren't the types to bite the hand that feeds them, so to speak, so no surprise there. But even Faizah and Cailan, who were as dastardly as himself, were looking rather wary at the current situation.
"Hey, two of them are carrying really nice magical arrows! I call dibs on them if they attack!" said one of the halfling's party members, the girl in pink getup.
"Now, now. They haven't made a move yet. Let's decide how to divide up the loot after they decide to hurl themselves at us," a half-elf with brown hair said.
Vail gulped. But he had made a decision. "Don't be silly! We would never do such a thing!" Vail lied. "Why, we are thankful for the aid. We will leave you all in peace."
He could see his party members relaxing, relieved at their leader's decision. Vail figured he had tempted fate enough with the failed attack on Ramazith. It was time to cut his losses and go.
"Awwww. Are you sure? We're such weak adventurers. You can take us!" the little halfling said, making sparkling eyes at Vail. "Won't you regret leaving your greatest treasures behind?"
We're so not going to fall for such an obvious ploy! "You've earned your reward. Please, just let us go in peace?"
The halfling face turned serious. "Smart choice. You get to live. Go, and keep out of trouble."
Didn't need to tell him twice. Vail and his party quickly left, thanking the halfling and his party on the way out.
On my part, I couldn't help but smile in spite of the loss of loot. It was nice that someone actually saw me as a threat, for once, instead of falling over laughing or trying to take me out since I looked weak. These fools get to live, just for that.