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overfedvenison · 6 years

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Neverwinter Nights 2 Journal....

Alright, I went through the Coven of Hags. I wasn't expecting much - it was basically a string of nonlinear challenges to get to the front of the line, and I had to fight the last group as the group of undead refused to budge or speak to me. No matter, I turned their Vampires into Chickens and killed the rest.

But upon gaining council, the hags trapped me in a dungeon - The Skein. Around here I'm feeling the Fighter's lack of Diplomacy, and so am improving my Intimidate skill as I level.

The atmosphere here is thick. It's dark, dank, and dripping with water. A mad hag is somewhere beyond, cackling and screaming as you explore. I really like the concept, and it's unnerving at first... But the hag just talks too much, and after a while it gets sort of annoying rather than scary. A shame, but an excellent first impression.

The Skein is kind of rough at places... My wizard Safiya is hanging back near the start, buffing me with a Persist Haste while I venture fourth. By using Stealth, Tracking, and Search I wander through the area alone, without much issue aside from a group of hags who's magic eventually wore me down enough that I had to use my Telthor Leg Bone to become Ethereal and retreat until I regenerated... For some reason I didn't want to stay locked-on to attack them, either. Still, being worn down once and retreating to use a Ring of Regeneration gives me about twice as much HP as I actually have, and I have 480 HP, so... Not too much three hags can do against that while I attack them with my Reaper's Despair sickle, haha. At another point, I brought out a bow and started sniping an elemental that couldn't reach me.

I also encountered a group of NPCs surviving in this desolate dungeon and actually got a (Search) dialogue check to call out someone's bluff, which was neat. I found they were listening to "The Sleeper," a drow trapped in an eternal slumber who periodically babbles exposition.

I made my way through the Skein, and made my way to the Hag. Her boss fight was interesting; at one point she took over Safiya and I had to defeat her, but being a wizard the melee fight was one-sided. I wonder what would have happened if I was alone? In any case, it seems the hag was placed here for a relationship with a human that she loved, which birthed Gann. In this playthrough I never met him, so.... Whelp. Interesting information, nonetheless. I elected to kill her before the madness returns - Neutral, remember.

Killing her gave me the ability to travel into dreams. Weird, but sure. I travelled into The Sleeper's nightmare, and she begged me to kill her as the hags trapped her in eternal slumber due to dream traveling. Since I am neutral, I decided to to kill her, as well - I might have freed her if I wanted to slaughter the coven of hags above, but she's right in her assessment that the knowledge they have is too valuable.

From there, I went upstairs, fought some hagspawn, and entered into the dream of the coven...

(...)

The coven first sent me on a stageplay at a dreamscape of the theater my and Safiya are staying at, where we reenacted Akechi's defeat at the hands of the god of death. My character was told to improvise, but I didn't know my lines... Akechi didn't flee nor fight, though, and given the god of death is DEAD and replaced by a new death god I suspect Akechi's involvement.

The crowd turned hostile, and so I had to reenact Akechi's punishment and fight off various monsters. Afterwards, the actors playing Akechi's allies told me they would wait for his return and go through the gate when needed.

After that, a portal opened. I followed it to see the slumbering people maintaining the Slumbering Coven, who you could see in the real world before I entered this dreamscape. I entered the human's mind, and he wanted to gamble over a game of "Hells," essentially Mastermind. I beat him three times in a row by keeping track of everything in a note document and analyzing everything.

...After that, I exited to find the other two people gone and a new portal opened. I followed that one as well.

Beyond that was the Red Mage Araman that usurped Safiya's college, standing at the Betrayer's Gate I had found and cleared earlier. Safiya, or someone that looks like her, soon joins him... As expected, Araman is the brother of the child I met in the vision I had earlier (It was hinted at there,) who turns out to be Akechi the Betrayer (Which was at best a theory at the time.) Also as expected, we need to find the Silver Sword of Gith in order to open the gate beyond to the Fugue Plane and the Wall of the Faithless. I found that, being quite thorough, most of the preliminary questions I could inquire about were things I knew already... But now, everything is coming together. We have confirmation that all this is connected: The Spirit Eater Curse, the Sword of Gith, Akechi and the Crusade against the Wall of the Faithless.

Akechi explains that he previously betrayed his god to help his brother. Dream-Safiya knew the betrayer, and he wanted her safety. Akechi "suffered for her love" in her words. We know from earlier that Akechi had turned his back on his faith because his wife, who worshipped no god, died in a magic accident bricked into the Wall of the Faithless. If the woman who looks like Safiya in this dream is indeed that women, that means she may have been successfully removed from the Wall by Akechi during the last crusade?

I have a small argument with Araman here - He says he cannot betray his god again, I tell him that the betrayer would not want them to fight. Araman says that suffering cannot be avoided, and the universe cannot be torn asunder for the sake of one soul. I say "You're hiding behind philosophy and abstraction. However you justify yourself, you've betrayed your brother's trust." He declared that some choices are simply wrong, with love only making it harder to oppose, and that Akechi's quest is selfish and that he did not consider the conesquences. He says that the woman who looks like Safiya, too, "sows suffering in loves name and would have the heavens fall if love was served by this."

Then he attacks. I made short work of him, and the woman who looks like Safiya fades away after thanking me.

Uhh, you can choose to say his hand was forced, and he is not to blame, or that the gods should be obeyed, or that love is most important... But I'm neutral in the most "Gods and demons, get the hell off my planet" sense, and not schmaltzy enough to support love for loves sake. The Wall of the Faithless is planar dieties imposing their will on mortals, which is inherently unjust to my neutral views.

After that, I exited and took care of the two other people maintaining the Hag Coven's barriers... An Illithid who I had to help escape a maze, and a wizard trapped in a contract with a demon. I got 2500xp each, and a dream dagger I used to kill a pit fiend later.

And then, more plot: The portal brings me to the Wall of the Faithless where we meet Bishop again - An athiest, he is fused into the wall. Apparently he died after escaping the final battle, when the ceiling caved in on him (Since that data is not kept in the expansion, you basically just select what happened in a dialogue choice.) Despite being encased, sentient and awake, inside a wall, he's as sarcastic as ever and in a pitiable state.

He tells me that the wall of souls waits for me to lead the crusade, but he believes it to be a pointless endeavor and waits to be devoured to nothing. Then he drops a bomb on us: When taken over for just a moment by some outside force, he sees us inside the wall.

After fighting a pit fiend, I took a mask fragment from his body.

(...)

So, what does this all mean? I have theories...

- First: If I'm following correctly... the Sword of Gith should be at the college of Red Wizards, taken from us in the theater we explored earlier. The owner of the theater we were staying at, and her Red Wizard contact, had sent gargoyles to get us before the start of the game, extracted the silver shard in our chest, and placed us in Okko's Burrow to intentionally receive the curse. Maybe.

- I... Think this may have been a gambit to force us to continue the Betrayer's Crusade, as we reforged the Sword of Gith, and the point of removing the shard from my character's chest and giving her the curse was to complete the blade so I can lead the crusade once more. Araman led a coup in response, to stop our crusade at any cost. Hence, the Red Wizards, now mostly led by him, are our enemies and we will have to fight many to get the Sword of Gith

- The connection between Safiya, Araman, and Akechi explains why she was sent to find us in the Burrow, and how she got inside, at the start of the game Safiya was sent to get me and bring me to her Mother (Edit: Aunt) at the theater, who would have explained the situation, maybe, and brought me to the completed Sword of Gith? But that was interrupted by Araman's flunkies which resulted in the people we had to see dying.

- What's more, the spirit eater curse... Either that was the punishment Akechi endured for his treason, and so he bound himself inside the den and kept his spirit from leaving, or the Spirit Eater Curse is not a curse at all, but something Akechi made intentionally to fight the gods. Or, a third option, it may be the result of a soul being ripped from your body, hence why I am in the Wall of the Faithless. I think the way to cure myself of this affliction is probably to get my soul back from the wall, in any case.

- I don't know yet if Safiya is the same person who was plucked from the wall, perhaps extending her life via her specialized Transmutation magic, or if she is being earnest in not knowing about current happenings or why she was sent to find me. She doesn’t seem like it, at the very least.

EDIT: I played another like, five minutes and cleared the area and got some confusion cleared up. Wah

Anyways...

I left the Wall of the Faithless and spoke to the Coven of Hags, now physical and willing to speak.

The white and red twins were Lienna and Nefris. Nefris is the mother if Safiya and former head of the Red Wizard college, and they were twins...

Uhh...Did we not know that already? I guess I just assumed.

Apparently, they wanted to end me of my affliction. They show me what happaned... The two approached the coven and wanted to know how to cure the affliction, which they were told was indeed an affliction doled out by the former god of death. So I must find the God of Death's corpse, go into his dreams, and find a cure for the affliction that way (Which I have a STRONG INCLINATION is going to be "Get your soul/Akechi's Soul back from the wall of the faithless)

Alright, that reveal... Debunks a few theories I had, but strengthens a few others. Also I think I'm confusing a few of the characters, wuh. It was the white mage who died, not Safiya's mother? Right then...

I spoke to Safiya afterwards who cleared up a bit. - Araman hasn't succeeded on a coup against Safiya's mother, and Safiya's mother was the person in the dream. That means the Red Wizards aren't our enemies... Quite yet - Safiya is safe, then, and just an agent of her mother. - Akechi's allies for the fight are a demilich, a dragon, and a celestial. They were referenced elsewhere. - Since the twins were trying to cure me, they aren't part of a conspiracy.... However, It doesn't seem to make sense that I got the curse for entering Okko's lair in that case. If the Gargoyles took me from the crumbling area in Meredelain to the Theater, and then to Okko's Lair, I would have had to have the Sprit Eater curse before I was in there? No? Unless I was placed there and THEN moved. Mmm.... I think I'm missing something. This will clear itself out in time.

Oh! And Safiya asks to train me now that we're close. First she sharpens my mind and gives me a free +1 INT and a +2 on spell save DCs. Now my Intelligence is 16. ...A shame I don't get skill points for it. I also leveled up, and have 570 HP

#neverwinter nights 2

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