Let's Play Baldur's Gate - Part 7: "Revenge Of The Half-Ogre Gang 2: The Movie: The Game"

 Like I said, I'm coming down with a nasty cold and am having trouble putting together a coherent sentence but hey, it never stopped me before. Either way, this one is kinda lame.

With the damsel in distress rescued and the location of our next plot mission helpfully uncovered by a friendly Magus Ex Machina, it was time to pay a visit to Tazok's mercenaries. But first, I've had some unfinished business with a certain mountainous gang of half-ogres.


I've gotten rid of the party's deadwood, obtained 2 mages, some levels and a bunch of good magic items, so I should be able to search the southwestern wilderness relatively unmolested (or at least without dying and loading every 3 minutes).

Guess which of these four mountainous areas the Half-Ogres have "fortified" in.

We search the southwestern areas. Again. We find a woman defending against a horde of gibberlings (which are about as dangerous as kobolds), a camping friendly Ogre, who promises to fight us when he is done eating (thanks, but no thanks!) and a messenger, who tells us about diplomatic tension between Amn and Baldur's Gate. Don't know why: we're just small time adventurers who couldn't care less about politics.

Finally we find the gang in the area with the slight blue outline on the map above. They are in the northeastern corner of the local map, a bunch of half-ogres standing around a lovely meadow, with no mountains in sight.

Not pictured: Mountains.

 They also go down like chumps. I actually did not believe they were the ones we needed and the quest log didn't update when we killed them, so, of course, thinking that the group we met were just lookouts for a larger encampment in some rocky area further along, I've spent about an hour methodically cleaning up the map from hostiles. At least the paladin gave me a +1 Shield for my troubles.

After we talked with him back in Beregost, did some shopping (this is the point when I discovered 2nd edition armor doesn't have an agility penalty and put Lexter and Jaheira in Plate) and sold off all the crap we've gathered from the monsters (I wonder: what vendors DO with all those useless baubles?), I decide it's time to pay a visit to pay a visit to Tazok's contact in Beregost, Tranzig (what is it with the t's and z's in their names?). I don't know what I can possibly gain from him information-wise, I already know where the bad guys hideout is, but hey, it's xp and loot.

At first he seems polite, patiently waiting for me to initiate conversation even as I inconspicuously position my group around him.

Just, y'know...checking out the room. Yup. Very nice carpet, by the way.

I talk to him. He doesn't seem to realize the severity of his situation and asks me to make it quick cause he's getting ready to skip town, so I cut to the chase. He spills the beans or we spill his guts. He threatens me with his mage cred, not realizing that when a mage is being flanked from 3 sides by melee fighters, he already lost. We fight, he goes down with minimal resistance and leaves us a lovely ring of protection, a magic wand and a letter from the mysterious Tazok. It mainly expresses his disapproval of Mulahey, with the sole piece of quasi-useful information being a remark at the end, about preparing a raid on Peldvale or Larswood.

With that, we take our leave to the woods in the northeast, to the bandit lair. Which we will have to find manually by shifting though nondescript wilderness locations. Again.