I stomped all the way out of the north district towards the northeast one.
I was so engrossed with my own frustrations that I almost missed a woman who hailed us. "Travelers! Could you wait for a while so I might talk with you? I am Brielbara, a mage of minor power. I have heard that a group fitting your description were hiring themselves out as mercenaries. Is that true?"
I took a deep breath. No need to take out my frustrations on an outsider. "You heard wrong, but we're willing to hear you out if your need is, uh…," I said, then considered. "…What's the word I'm looking for?"
"Righteous?" Khalid offered hopefully.
I shook my head. "Too pompous. Let's go with 'justified'," I said.
Brielbara snorted. "An evil mage has laid a curse upon my only child, Namara. She is slowly wasting away and, without help, she'll die. How's that for justified?"
I nodded gravely. "Very justified."
Or at least, ostensibly justified.
"I'm even willing to pay you 200 gold. Not much for heroic adventures, but all that I have," Brielbara said. "The mage who did this is named Yago, and I'm sure that he possesses the remedy to the curse. Would you track him down for me, please?"
I didn't have to, but looked to the rest of the party. As expected, nods of agreement all around.
Brielbara told us we could find Yago in the Low Lantern, and what she needed from him was his spellbook with which she could use to reverse the curse.
---
We didn't take long to find Yago in the Low Lantern.
"What in the nine hells are you doing in my room?" the mage screamed at us.
I activated Algernon's Cloak, and soon he was pulling at my cheeks and saying, "Sooooo cute! Where did you come from, little fella?"
"To chat with you. Heard you had some lady trouble," I said, trying my best to control my feelings of annoyance rising up in my chest.
"Oh, have I ever!" Yago exclaimed. "My bitch of a wife slept with some elvish mongrel and even had his child. By the Nine Hells, does she ever have gall. Anyway she's not laughing anymore; I cursed the child of that unholy union, so that it would die an early death. I hope the little brat drowns in its own vomit."
He went back to ruffling my hair. "Not like you, you little cutie pie!"
The elvish mongrel in question was Coran. Yes, the best archer companion in Baldur's Gate 1. Coran wasn't even in my party right now and yet I feel like strangling him.
I already knew this much, of course. It's just that I wanted the rest of the party to hear it so they understood my predicament.
"Yago, please wait for us in your room. You can tell us all about how you've been wronged when we come back later," I told him.
Outside and out of earshot, I had a discussion with the party.
"I have to confess, I don't feel too good about killing a man who has been cheated on," I said to the group. "I could easily steal the spellbook away from him, and the curse on Brielbara's daughter will be lifted. All harm done will be reversed."
"Yago has been wronged, but he went too far. He attempted to kill an innocent child out of his spite for the mother," Jaheira said. "If we do not end him, he could do it again. Or worse."
"I get why Sonny feels bad for the guy though," Neera said. "Yago may deserve punishment, yet so does Brielbara who is going to get away free from consequence."
Even though Neera was supporting me, I thought it was rich that she of all people wanted to see people get their just deserts.
Noticing the look I was giving her, she looked back at me and asked, "What?"
"No, it's nothing," I muttered.
Neera rolled her eyes at me and mouthed 'no it's nothing' mockingly.
"We could leave the resolution to the Flaming Fist. Attempted murder doesn't carry the same magnitude of sentencing as murder once we the child in question," Khalid said. "If Yago goes to prison, the reason why he did it in the first place will become public. I think he'll get some satisfaction in publicly dragging Brielbara's reputation in court."
"The innocent child is saved, Yago is incarcerated, and Brielbara's indiscretion becomes the talk of town. A most agreeable outcome," Branwen said with a nod.
So that's what we settled on. Charmed, Yago willingly came with us to the Flaming Fist and bragged about his crime to them like he did for us. He was summarily imprisoned while awaiting trial, and his spellbook was confiscated to be used for Brielbara's cure for her daughter.
We would later hear that Yago took great pleasure in describing Brielbara's indiscretion in court later, which had a full attendance in public gallery, much to Brielbara's horror. Due to how scandalous the entire affair was, the whole thing became the talk of town.
Coran, that rat bastard, was nowhere to be seen. If I see Coran again I swear I'm going to drag his sorry arse to Baldur's Gate and force him to take responsibility for his child.
---
And that was that for our tour of Baldur's Gate. Well, not quite. I led the party back to the central district. We didn't have any quests left in the area, but there was someone I wanted to talk to.
Neera looked at the fortune teller's tent. "Sooooo, why are we here exactly?"
"We have a literal seer who can answer any one question every 24 hours," I said. "Considering all the questions we have, wouldn't it be wise to give it a try?"
"Smart. I didn't even think of that," Jaheira said, rubbing her chin.
"See? Even Jaheira agrees," I said to Neera.
Neera's eyes narrowed at me, then she pulled me aside. "We both know you already know everything that happens in the game. So why are we here exactly?"
"Because we don't know everything that's happening now, remember? Something's gone of script."
"Uhhhh…"
I face-palmed. "The halfling goddess?"
Neera's mouth opened. "Oh, right! I completely forgot about that!"
With my party sorted out, I had to figure out exactly how to phrase my question to Haspur. Uh, the wisdom of Haspur? I'm 99% sure this seer's name is actually Haspur. Let's stick to calling him Haspur.
Anyway, in the end the question I posed to him was "Who is the halfling goddess that Arkushule noticed when she read my palm?"
Haspur took his time with this one, staring into his crystal ball much longer than the previous time we used his services with Lothander. "A name is coming to me. The name of the halfling goddess is Dallah… Thaun?" Haspur said, uncertain.
I blinked. Dallah who?
"Dallah what now?" Branwen said, echoing my sentiment. "I'm fairly certain there's no god or goddess that goes by that name."
"Dallah Thaun. I am certain heard the name loud and clear. You have your answer," Haspur confirmed slowly. "Ugh… This answer took a great deal out more of me than usual. Please leave, I can't handle any more questions for today. Or tomorrow. Look, just get out please."
We left the tent, and we were left with even more questions than we had before.
"Have any of you…," I began to ask the rest.
They shook their heads.
---
Somewhere in the Green Fields, a matron-like goddess and her darker counterpart were looking in the viewing pool with horror etched on their faces.
"So much for having no means of finding out," Yondalla, the matron-like goddess remarked.
Yondalla isn't just the matriarch of the halfling pantheon, but the creator and patron of the whole halfling race. She is present across multiple settings, including the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk. Her domains include that of fertility, protection and a bountiful harvest. Her symbol of a cornucopia on a shield is pretty telling.
"How does that even work? That's cheating," Dallah Thaun, the halfling goddess with dark hair said, then laughed aloud. "I love it! I should expect no less from my own Chosen!"
Dallah Thaun is an aspect of Yondalla who may or may not exist. The story of her genesis is a little complicated. After Yondalla had created the halflings using the essences of other races (agility of elves, devotion of dwarves, boldness of orcs, resourcefulness of humans), the patron gods of those races demanded that Yondalla remove her own deceitful, larcenous, and secretive qualities as punishment. Unbeknownst to the other gods, these qualities were reborn as Dallah Thaun, who now acts at the dark guardian of halflings. Dallah Thaun's domains were trickery, secrets and stealth, and those were her chosen weapons. Her holy symbol is the reverse side of Yondalla's shield, decorated with a bag of coins instead.
Yondalla frowned at her. "Don't use that term. It has specific connotations. It's not like you actually imbued Sonny with your divine power. He isn't even yours in any sense of the word."
"But he is my Chosen!" Dallah Thaun laughed aloud again, and did a little twirl. "Imbued with all the advantages that a hobbit confers! Who better to exemplify my tenets, than a cunning sneak? And why imbue my Chosen with my own divine powers, when I can steal one imbued with another god's essence?"
Someone was clearly feeling quite proud of herself, in spite of being found out.
Yondalla crossed her arms. "And what will you do when Sonny starts spreading your name around while trying to inquire about you? You're not supposed to even be here."
After all, Dallah Thaun's existence was a secret even to the gods. …Maybe. Dallah Thaun's existence is so secret that even it isn't fully certain which setting Dallah Thaun belongs to, if any.
Dallah Thaun stopped twirling. "Oh. Er. That, that is a problem."
Yondalla took a long, deep breath, and breathed out slowly. "Nothing we can do about it for now. We'll work something out in the meantime."
The dark goddess disappeared back into the shadow of the matron goddess. She had never existed, and this conversation never happened.
---
I paced around the market place, considering our next move.
Having done a whole tour of Baldur's Gate, I was running dry of things to do here. Was there really nothing else?
Then it struck me. "Aha! There's another noble woman who wants someone to to hire someone to kill a man trying to blackmailing her!"
Jaheira's eyebrow raised. "I thought you said we weren't mercenaries?"
"We're helping a poor woman in need. I did mention she's being blackmailed?"
The party gave each other a look.
"And what is she being blackmailed for that requires our attention so?" Neera asked with arms crossed.
"Uh… I think, I think she was seen having some fun in the Undercellar," I responded weakly.
The rest of the party groaned.
"Sonny. You're not even collecting valuable items that might help us any more," Imoen said. "What's up with you?"
"It's just that, uh, I think there might be something left to do in the city. Someone might still need our help!"
"Scar needs out help. He had wanted our help to deal with the Iron Throne. Are we just going to ignore the Iron Throne now?" Branwen asked.
Neera uncrossed her arms, gripped me by the shoulders, and led me away. To the rest, she said, "Gimme a moment."
Once we were out of earshot, she sat me down on one of the barrels in the market.
"Come on, Sonny. You're stalling. It obvious at this point, since there are no more significant quests left," Neera said to me frankly.
"I'm… I'm not stalling," I said, twiddling my thumbs and looking down.
Neera considered a moment. "You know so much about this game. You like this game, didn't you? You played it often?"
"More times than I care to count," I replied, a slight smile forming on my mouth.
Neera smacked herself on her forehead. "Of course. You're in your favourite game. It's high adventure and peril. You don't want it to end."
Clarity hit me like a wave of light. Ah, that explains a lot, really.
"Obviously I don't want it to end! Who would?" I said right back to Neera. I gestured wide, to the world around us. The fanfare of the marketplace, the bustling medieval fantasy city, the swords and sorcery, the party of adventurers I had grown to love. "I may not remember much of my life back on Earth, but it certainly wasn't THIS. This is awesome! We're awesome! We get to be awesome here!"
Neera, in spite of trying to look stern, cracked a smile. "Yeah, we are pretty awesome, aren't we. The whole Sword Coast is in peril, and we're the heroes going to save it."
"Exactly!" I exclaimed, pointing right at her.
She pulled another barrel close, and sat next to me. "As awesome as all this is, it's time to stop having fun and start saving the Sword Coast, isn't it?"
I looked away, let out a sigh. "You're right, of course. Eventually, all good things have to come to and end. It's about time to lock in," I admitted, then turned to Neera. "It's not going to get pretty hairy from here on out, you know? I may have derailed the original plot in our favour, but the world seems to realign itself with the original timeline no matter what I do. We're probably in for a world of trouble."
Neera scoffed. "Let 'em try. After all, we're awesome."
I laughed. "Yes. Yes, we are. Sarevok and the Iron Throne don't stand a chance."
Neera blinked. "You mean Rieltar and the Iron Throne, right? Sarevok's not the one in charge."
I shook my head sadly. "Like I said, it's going to get hairy from here on out. You'll see soon enough."