BG3: Throne of Bhaal aka What Could Have Been But Didn’t And Will Never Be
Q: What the hell is this?
A: As a giant nerd and RPG fan, I like BG series a bit more than is healthy. It's also my opinion that BG2:ToB was a huge waste of potential (it should've been BG2: Watcher's Keep or something, only adding some extra areas to BG2) and BG series should've been a real trilogy that ends with a last proper game of Baldur's Gate 3: Throne of Bhaal. BG2:ToB as it was made is more or less a straight corridor to the end, quite disappointing after epicness of 2 games. It's short and the ending of the "saga" is terribly rushed compared to BG and BG2.
So, out of a misguided attempt to fix the game inside my head and an excess of spare time, I made up a whole imaginary game that doesn't exist and will never exist, but should have existed.
Q: What?
A: It's a "Fix Fic" in tvtropes parlance, only it's not fiction at all since I'm not a writer (or even an aspiring writer) and it's in game outline form instead of a story form. So it's not anything like a "fix fic".
Q: Why are you posting it here?
A: Because it's cluttering my skull and it should be vomited out to clear the mind. And I daresay I got a few cool ideas in it which would be appreciated by people who like BG series. Also if anyone wants to take some ideas (or even all of them) from it and use in their writing, feel free. I need no recognition or hold no copyrights.
Q: Are you mad?
A: Probably.
Q: You blabber far too much.
A: That's not a question.
Q: Why is the writing so weird?
A: Because it's been written haphazardly with long breaks in random places and wasn't proofread. I'm more or less copying my text file. Also it's not a story, or a screenplay, or a synopsis. I don't actually know what it can be called.
Q: You could've attached the file instead of pasting all that walls of text.
A: I wouldn't trust some random poster on the net to download the stuff he uploads on his very first post in a forum.
So here's the giant text in all its "glory"
Intro:
The Realms is in chaos. As the time of Aluando's propecy draws close, there's all manner of rumors and theories about Bhaalspawn and Bhaal's return. Bhaalspawn rumors seem to be everywhere, tales of deranged mass murderers and vile killers spread like wildfire. And the masses are afraid, so it’s torch&pitchfork time. Strangers everywhere meet suspicion and hostility. Many unlucky travellers, street urchins and random people who just don't look like their fathers have been killed by mere whispers of "Bhaalspawn" and since the only proof of Bhaalspawnism is disintegrating into golden dust after death, there's not much one can say to refute accusations. Bhaalspawn are on the roads en masse, fleeing persecution and oppression, while partaking in a bit of old ultraviolence on the side. Chaos really is sown in their passage.
Charname and Imoen are still chilling in Suldanessellar after Irenicus' defeat. Their other companions have moved on. But even elves who owe everything to a couple of Bhaalspawn aren't immune to chaos. Whispers are growing louder in the elven city. On that fateful day, Queen Ellesime sends for Charname.
Prologue/Tutorial: ("You" indicates Charname, the player)
The game opens up with a freaky dream sequence. You are talking to Bhaal and he’s saying some ominous and cryptic bullshit about his throne and the contenders for it. There’ll be a similar freaky dream sequence at the start of every chapter and each will be fully spoiling the plot of that chapter but can only be recognized as such in hindsight, as is the norm for fantasy.
Actual game starts in your room at elven palace's guest quarters. Imoen is next door. A brief chat shows she's very happy here in Suldanessellar. It's beautiful, elves are helping her magic training, there’s peace, good food... On the way to Queen, you meet various elves that ask trivial things of you: take this, go there, talk to that, kill some sort of vermin. When you finally meet Queen, she says she's received a message today about you. Or rather a threat. A letter that states Charname and Imoen will be attacked and killed soon and if they're still in Suldanessellar, a lot of elves will end up as collateral damage. Neither Ellesime, nor anyone else has any idea how this latter came to be here. So since these are the same dumb fuckers who thought exiling Irenicus was a good idea, they're kicking you and Imoen out.
You take the bad news to Imoen, who has just received a letter as well. It says that the Tethyrian city of Saradush has become a safe haven for Bhaalspawn under the benevolent rule of Gromnir Ilkhan. Gromnir is a Bhaalspawn himself and he allows all Bhaalspawn who can reach Saradush to live there in peace. This letter is from a Realms famous bard and Tethyrian diplomat named Melissan, she’s the biggest supporter of the "Bhaalspawn rights" and her name had been mentioned by some elves. Imoen likes the sound of it and wants to check that out. So you venture forth.
Chapter 1:
[This BG3 has a worldmap like BG1's. There are many areas to explore and you actually have to pass wilderness maps to reach Saradush and other places, since most locations you’ll want to go will be places you haven’t been to (therefore can’t teleport to without reaching first) or warded against teleportation. You'll also have a camp/room/base wherever you go, allowing you to keep all party members around (because that's a positive improvement in CRPGs since the time of Baldur's Gate). Any NPC you don’t bring with you will be waiting for your return in camp/room/base.]
You and Imoen are being "escorted" by some elf “party members” (possibly including the elf commander who wasn’t nameless from end of BG2) in the forest to ensure your “safe departure”. You're almost out of elven territory. But you're attacked by a bunch of dudes in distinctive uniforms who seem to be expecting you. Cue easy warm up battle. Elves are unhapppy to see hostiles in their territory. The elven checkpoint close to where they were going to leave you has been overrun by more baddies. They call themselves Black Reavers and have killed the elves manning the place. Bigger battle. Finally you meet an archer woman named Illasera. She shows that she means business by sniping one of your escorts. Then there's an escape sequence in the forest where you, Imoen and remaining elves fight through groups of Black Reavers while a neverending tide of their buddies come after you. Luckily it’s still the start of the game and they’re easy. But spending too much time killing Reavers and not moving forward results in Illasera coming in and blowing another elven head off. Chase goes on for two maps and at the end of it, Illasera kills the rest of them to further cement her status as a boss (optionally you could have one of the well liked old party members with you such as Minsc, Jan or even Xan to get killed here so Illasera gets to be Sarevok 2.0). If you waste too much time and Illasera runs out of fake party members to smoke, she’ll start shooting you/Imoen instead which is really bad.
Soon as you reach third map, another woman who instantly recognizes you as Gorion's wards greets you. This is Melissan and she'll help you escape Illasera. She was on her way to Suldanessellar to meet you two anyway when she noticed the huge Black Reaver force and has been trailing them since. Now that you managed to break through, escape is possible. Then she disguises three of you as Black Reavers and you get a semi stealth sequence on a map crawling with patrolling Black Reavers.
Once you're clear, you can talk to Melissan. She'll talk about the chaos in Realms, trouble Bhaalspawns face everywhere, how she's doing her best to champion the "Bhaalspawn cause”, the notorius Bhaalspawn hunter organization Black Reavers and their chief enforcer Illasera, Gromnir Ilkhan and his wisdom and strength, Saradush... She's a NG bard as mentioned. She's also Ms Exposition, so she’ll basically talk about every damn thing in game if you ask. She wants you to go to Saradush and help Gromnir make it a safe place for Bhaalspawn.
She always has places to go, people to see, so she leaves. You and Imoen pass through various wilderness maps on your way to Saradush. One of those is a town where you'll pick up your very first new party member (whom I'll be leaving blank aside from the fact that he’s male, fits right into the classic mold of romance NPC and instantly falls head over heels for Imoen), meet some NPCs, get small sidequests plus a big one which will take you to a dungeon romp.
[Note: Any NPCs who join your party (except Imoen) will be ignored entirely in this text. Mainly because I suck at that sort of thing, but they're definitely there.]
You also see first hand the effect Bhaalspawn business has on common folk (it ain't pretty). The sidequest will (of course) make you save the whole town from some disaster or other, assuming you do it. But upon returning you'll find that Illasera is in town, with a lot of Reavers. A number of townspeople will also be on their side against the “evil” Bhaalspawn (town's resident clerics and paladin who gave small sidequests, most of militia, the ex-mercenary barkeep, etc.) and a big battle ensues. Illasera is a maxed out epic ranger therefore too much for you to handle right now, but she will teleport away if you wound her or kill every one of her somewhat weak flunkies. Afterwards, the whole town turns against you on account of you slaughering a lot of their neighbors but they're not quite stupid enough to attack. It's clear you're not wanted here though. If you happen to skip the major sidequest to save this dinghy little town, you can move right on and not have to face Illasera and her mooks or slaughter half the population.
After more encounters with Black Reaver groups on various maps, you finally reach Saradush outskirts. Illasera is already here waiting for you. Since she won’t be able to get to you in Saradush, she'll play for keeps this time. Cue boss battle. She’s a slippery one. She’s able to teleport at will and uses that to get to hard to reach places and shoot while you're fighting her neverending Reavers. The map has lots of pits and cliffs for her. She always ports to somewhere else as soon as anyone gets close to her. She has seemingly infinite healing potions (she likely hoarded them while she was leveling up). Your party have to reach the city gates and then survive there for a time till gates open and Gromnir's soldiers come out to help you. When they come, a final wave of Black Reavers will come as well for the final showdown of Chapter 1. Illasera will keep gulping down potions and only port away when her giant Reaver army is all dead. Entering Saradush starts Chapter 2.
Chapter 2:
[Saradush is the big city of this BG3, like Amn or the titular Baldur's Gate. New party members, returning party members, more sidequests, more important NPCs, shops... You name it, Saradush has it.]
It’s not quite the utopic Bhaalspawn paradise Melissan described. The common folk still hates and fears Bhaalspawn but Gromnir's soldiers are everywhere, making sure no one is ever oppressing them. No one seems to protect the commoners with that same zeal, but at least they don’t look conquered. You’ll be meeting a lot of Bhaalspawn, but the first and most important of all is obviously Gromnir Ilkhan. He has heard of your exploits up north and wants to meet you.
Gromnir is an extremely charismatic LN human and a powerful general who got pissed at the treatment Bhaalspawn was receiving lately and decided to do something about it. He’s pretty amiable. He's a vassal of Tethyrian crown and has taken over the city with his loyal army (that contains plenty of Bhaalspawn) and turned it into a place where no one can mess with Bhaalspawn. Except sadly other Bhaalspawn. Gromnir is having various troubles and he'd like your help in fixing them. There's a cabal of Bhaalspawn who want to overthrow him and take Saradush for themselves. There's hidden Black Reaver sympathizers. There's the occasional Bhaalspawn who's just stupid evil and needs to be put down... Then there's Gromnir's various lieutenants (some Bhaalspawn themselves, some ordinary human/elf/hobgoblin/etc) and paper pushers who all have stuff that they're dying to pay someone to do on their behalf.
There’s no shortage of sidequests to do. Some old friends have also heard of Saradush and came looking for you, including but not limited to the BG2 love interests, and they’re quite happy to join up. There’s also a bunch of new party members as well. You’ll end up with a party of about 10 people by the end of chapter, most of new members will join after a sidequest (this hypothesis is concerned with the main plot so the party’s existence is a given but individuals won’t be mentioned further).
Main story follows your efforts to help Gromnir stabilize Saradush. You calm the nobles of Saradush who don’t like that Gromnir came in and declared himself ruler. You track down a serial killer Bhaalspawn. You discover a traitor among Gromnir’s inner circle (you’re not the only Bhaalspawn who commands an epic level party) who’s been plotting to replace him. After all your hard work, Melissan will come back to the city bringing dire news. A new Bhaalspawn leading an army has appeared and is coming to attack Saradush. This would be conqueror is named Yaga Shura and he's a mighty orc warlord. He's quite determined to kill all other Bhaalspawn and is promising to leave everyone else unharmed if they only hand over every last Bhaalspawn to him. Gromnir is not amused. But once Yaga Shura's offer leaks to populace at large, the city goes nuts. Citizens outnumber Bhaalspawn refugees and Gromnir's personal army many times over and even native army of Saradush that serve Gromnir as a vassal of Tethyr might revolt. Obviously, Gromnir has no time to discover the culprits behind this leak since he and his party will be busy dealing with nobles and soldiers and preparing defenses. And so you go detectoring. A long investigation quest leads you to a hidden group of agitators and infiltrators who are revealed to be Black Reavers. Cue battle. (The last vital piece of info that leads you to find them is given to you by a random woman named Sendai, who appears to be inconsequential because every NPC you’ve dealt with during this questline had names. She’s not inconsequential at all.)
The city cools down once instigators are dead and Gromnir and Melissan’s combined charisma placates the citizens. Now everyone can focus on defense. Melissan leaves Saradush again as Gromnir's official envoy to ask for aid and Gromnir himself is busy with war plans so he has no time for you. Gromnir's party members have stuff to do for strengthening Saradush against the invaders (yours isn’t the only party that gets sidequests). Your important job is done, so a few more optional sidequests (possibly from your party members) unlock for you to spend time with.
Eventually, Gromnir will have bad news for you. Melissan has been caught by Black Reavers when she left Saradush. So no help of any kind is coming. More, he wants her saved. And he knows where they took her. You are probably itching to finally get back at Illasera and you're probably strong enough to defeat her now that you have a full party. Gromnir has you teleported to Black Reaver base, which is a large underground base with lots of epic battles and traps and whatnot. It's also very far away from Saradush, so you are given a gizmo that will teleport you back.
Secret Reaver base is the first proper dungeon to be crawled. You'll learn that Reavers aren’t a strictly evil organization. Many of their members are people from around the Realms who’ve been victims of various evils Bhaalspawn committed and their express purpose is to stop Bhaalspawn menace by any means necessary. All members believe they’re ultimately serving a good cause. They’re extremely rich and powerful secret society with shadowy tendrils expanding everywhere. All those murder rumors, the mass hysteria against Bhaalspawn, assasinations, engineered disasters that’s blamed on Bhaalspawn and such are their work. Everything they’ve done is to eradicate all Bhaalspawn. And their leaders live here. But there’s no trace of Melissan anywhere. Eventually you bust into their inner sanctum and get the big chapter end battle with the epic level party that controls Black Reavers organization. This entire dungeon should be strongly reminiscent of Iron Throne business from the original.
Upon searching their rooms and reading their journal (no self respecting party of adventurers would not have a journal as you’re well aware), you learn that the chief enforcer thing is a cover and Illasera is the real leader of this little party. They’ve been deceiving their followers all along to serve their mistress. It turns out Illasera is a Bhaalspawn too and the Reaver inner circle worships her as the next Lady of Murder, who will ascend to godhood once every other Bhaalspawn is dead. She created Black Reaver organization and made it powerful so that she could use them destroy her rivals on the race to godhood. Basically she’s a Sarevok who succeeded, which should’ve been pretty hammered in by now with all the BG1 callbacks.
But now that the main base of Black Reavers has been destroyed, their leaders killed, their stuff looted and the secret papers have been revealed, it’s over for them. But there’s still no trace of Melissan, so you leave empty handed. You find Illasera waiting at your camp.
Chapter 3:
This chapter starts with a big chat with Illasera. She has a prisoner with a familiar face: one of Gromnir’s own party. Illasera has startling revelations for you. Gromnir is evil and he and Yaga Shura are Illasera's partners in crime. Their plan was to gather all Bhaalspawn in one place where they can all be killed in a single stroke. Illasera fanned the flames of chaos, forcing Bhaalspawn into the open. Gromnir pretended to create a safe haven that was certain to draw them all. And Yaga Shura built an army to do the dirty deed. All three of them intended to turn on each other in the end, of course, which is how you managed to get here. Gromnir has outmaneuvered Illasera, Reavers never attacked Melissan, he lied to you so you’d come and ruin Illasera. The gizmo that's supposed to take you back to Saradush doesn't work and Gromnir’s minion confirms everything Illasera says shortly before she kills him. Yaga Shura’s army was much larger and closer than reports indicated. City is probably falling as you speak. There’s no point going back now. What Gromnir doesn’t know is that, thanks to Illasera, Yaga Shura knows exactly how and when Gromnir and his party will try to escape the city. Yaga Shura will personally ambush them and that’ll be the end of Gromnir. This is certain because Yaga Shura is literally invincible. Thanks to you, however, now Illasera has lost her power base too and will be easy prey to Yaga Shura when he’s done with Saradush. She has an offer for you.
It is rumored that Yaga Shura's mother is a powerful witch who somehow warded her son against all harm. And Yaga showed his gratitude by imprisoning her so none can learn the details of this protection. Illasera wants you to join her against Yaga Shura. If you agree, she'll take you to Yaga Shura's home and also help you once you get inside. Illasera hopes there'll be something in his fortress that'll help you defeat him. If you agree, Illasera opens up Yaga Shura’s mountain fortress on your map.
But if you refuse she'll just curse you and port away. Now you'll have to go back to Saradush the long way. It takes a while. When you finally reach Saradush, it has indeed fallen. City is burning and the bulk of Yaga Shura's extremely large army is busy pillaging the wrecked remains of Saradush. Yaga Shura ordered every single person in Saradush killed. This should be a very sad moment in game where player realizes that everyone from Chapter 2 is dead. Yaga Shura himself is camped outside the city with a small part of his army. You find the bodies of Gromnir’s remaining party in the exact place Illasera told you they’d be (it’s a familiar place that you’d visited because of some sidequest or other). Gromnir’s remains are nowhere to be seen (which is no surprise) but when you get close, one of Gromnir’s minions will call out. Apparently, when they were ambushed by Yaga Shura himself, he played dead. The invincible orc slaughtered Gromnir and all of his epic level party single handedly. This NPC is the sleazy rogue type that’s in it for the money and he doesn’t care much that Gromnir is dead or that he was an evil bastard. He repeats the rumors about Yaga’s witch mother and tells you that Gromnir was planning to sneak into Yaga Shura’s fortress himself. He gives you the map, he’s had enough of this Bhaalspawn bullshit and leaves (or ports away if for some reason you attack him). Saradush's remains are inaccesible. Ruined city gates is a giant map and you can actually attack Yaga Shura's huge camp and have an epic battle against the battalion stationed there. But sooner or later Yaga Shura will come out of his tent and he won’t be amused. And he's as invincible as you were warned, you'll die if you try to fight him.
So you end up at Yaga Shura's mountain fortress either way. As can be expected, it’s a gigantic dungeon crawl, with many floors both above and below ground. It's a lot bigger than Illasera's base and makes up the major portion of Chapter 3 all by itself. If Yaga Shura and his gigantic army were still here, the fortress would be utterly impenetrable and even now there’s still hundreds of soldiers and mercenaries of all types. There's all manner of battles and traps and backtracking to open up new sections with gizmos found in other sections. There’s even an optional dragon to fight. Your target is the deepest room under the mountain where Yaga's mother is supposed to be imprisoned. If you've accepted Illasera's offer, she'll be assisting you. She won’t join your party, but occasionally she'll pop in and tell you how to proceed and will unlock some sections and let you bypass the hardest battles and puzzles. If she's not with you, you'll be doing everything on your own. Finally you'll reach the "cell" where Yaga's mother is. Which turns out to be more a palace than a prison, complete with servants and elite guards. Yaga Shura's mother is a crazy old orc witch. She knows what brought you here and is willing to tell you how his son's invincibility can be removed. But her price will be the death of a Bhaalspawn.
If you didn’t team up with Illasera to come directly, you’ve had a secret stalker since Saradush, and he appears now when orc witch calls him. It’s that minion of Gromnir who survived. But then he transforms into Gromnir himself and another secret is revealed: Gromnir is a doppelganger (also that Bhaal wasn’t very picky). But he’s not any old doppelganger, his Bhaalspawn power allows him to pull unbelievable crap (as you’ll see shortly).
Both Illasera and Gromnir are very willing to kill you.
-If you’re facing Illasera, she fights as before but this room doesn't have convenient sniping positions and cannon fodder for her and you've grown stronger and got yourself a full party of 6 since your last fight, so it's a lot easier. Once she's heavily wounded she throws a hissy fit saying how she'll be back and she'll get you and your little Imoen too but she fails to teleport away, much to her surprise. The orc witch has activated the defenses of the chamber, which includes a teleport blocker. Illasera can’t escape now and you finally get to kill her.
-If you’re facing Gromnir, he’ll transform into various familiar shapes (including Gorion, Sarevok and Irenicus for lulz) and taunt you as you fight. He’s a max level fighter with insane regeneration, some tricky spells and resistance against all damage, but he’s not particularly harmful against a full party of epic characters. In the end he disintegrates like any Bhaalspawn. At that point the orc witch points out that he’s deceived you yet again by transforming into the trademarked disintegrating death of a Bhaalspawn and the “dust pile” is trying to escape right now by pretending to be blowing in the wind. You’re lucky that she’s here, otherwise you’d never even suspect it. She activates the defenses of the chamber which seals the exits of the room, much to the chagrin of Gromnir. He’s trapped and you kill him for real.
Now that orc witch is appeased by the death of one of her son’s rivals, she tells you that she took out Yaga Shura’s heart and made it into a talisman that makes him invincible as long as the spell isn’t broken. You can dispel the invincibility and make Yaga Shura mortal again by shoving the thingy into his chest. In other news, the rumors were untrue and Yaga Shura didn't imprison her. She'd voluntarily stayed here isolated from the world and she won’t sit idly while you plot to kill her son. She has kept her promise and told you the secret of Yaga's invincibility but she never promised to not kill you later on. Also she's far from helpless in this chamber. Cue the real bossfight of Chapter 3. The chamber has a lot of tricks: golems, antimagic field, traps, barriers, puzzles and the witch herself, who’s a very powerful cleric/mage. It's a long and tough battle with multiple stages.
Once you win, you’ll find some letters Yaga Shura sent to his mother that talks about the “Bhaalspawn conspiracy” and his role as their plans progress. It turns out that there’s actually five conspirators. The real mastermind behind the operation is a Bhaalspawn named Sendai. Sendai is quite a mysterious figure, other conspirators know practically nothing about her. But it was she who thought up the main plan and everything she told others to do ended with great success. Yaga admits to being unsure if he can actually find and kill her when the conspiracy inevitably dissolves and they turn on each other. And the last Bhaalspawn is named Abazigal and Yaga has nothing to say about him other than the fact that he’s too lazy to do the one thing Sendai told him to do, namely killing the single Bhaalspawn in all Faerun who proved too strong for Illasera to kill or intimidate. This is a man called Balthazar who lives in a small town named Amkethran. The final letter confirms that Illasera tipped Yaga Shura off to Gromnir’s escape route and he personally ambushed Gromnir’s party and killed them all (this is how the orc witch figures out Gromnir’s death trick). The letter ends on a high note and Yaga assures his mother that he’ll be the new Lord of Murder.
Chapter 4:
When you leave the fortress, you meet another familiar face: Elminster (because let's face it, it can't be an epic level game set in Forgotten Realms without El making an apperance). He tells you that Yaga Shura’s army has left Saradush and is marching towards an unknown target. Melissan actually managed to get Tethyr and some neighboring kingdoms to gather a huge army to help Saradush but the city fell unexpectedly fast. Now this combined army intends to destroy Yaga Shura in retaliation. He suggests you visit Melissan, who’s currently travelling with this Tethyr army. Sadly he can’t teleport you there because the army is warded against teleportation to prevent potential attacks. So you walk.
After an uneventful journey, you find Melissan in the army camp. She’s very unhappy about Saradush. She’s also acting as a liaison between the various nations’ armies because while everyone hates Yaga Shura, getting large numbers of different kingdoms’ soldiers together in one place is a tense affair. The news you bring of the evil conspiracy of mass murder shocks her greatly too. Distraught, she introduces you to leaders of armies and leaves. The generals of various nations really don’t like the news of Yaga Shura’s invincibility. Also the news of Yaga Shura’s rampage has spread far and wide so there’s a constant stream of evil adventurers and mercenaries of all types going there to join up so his army grows every second, yet the generals debate and argue and it becomes clear that they’re utterly unable to get anywhere without Melissan holding their hands. The army won’t be going anywhere for a while.
The army camp will be your “town” (for lack of a better term) for this chapter. A number of soldiers will talk about their insignificant troubles but no one in the entire camp is dumb enough to ask a powerful Bhaalspawn such as you to bring them 15 rat tails, so no sidequests this time. Even shopkeepers know that their wares are too far beneath your notice. Only person of interest is Melissan. While she is happy that you destroyed Black Reavers, it was quite late for most Bhaalspawn. And she can’t get over Gromnir’s betrayal. As ungood as it is, she’s glad that you killed Illasera/Gromnir and hopes you find and kill all other conspirators soon as well. She also gives you a gizmo that’s more or less a phone. Now you can talk to her whenever and wherever you want and she can call you when plot demands it. Right now you have three places to go: Abazigal, Yaga Shura and Balthazar. Melissan notes that the place where Abazigal lives according to Yaga Shura’s letters is very close to the lair of an infamously powerful dragon named Draconis. Melissan also suggests meeting Balthazar first but you can go in any order.
Amkethran is a small town that lives in the shadow of a monastery. There’s an order of warrior monks there and Balthazar is their master. People don’t much care for strangers and they won’t talk to you. The only thing you can do is to talk to the monks guarding monastery doors. They’ll just tell you that Balthazar has no wish to see you and you’re done here. However you can pick a fight with the monks if you want, they’ll warn you that you’ll pay dearly for it. It’s entirely possible to anger the whole monastery and Balthazar (this will cause you a lot of trouble on next chapter) by killing the group of monks guarding the door. If you kill the very tough bunch of monk guards, about a hundred more monks and Balthazar will pour out of the monastery. Balthazar will demand you leave and never come back. Trying to fight further will result in getting destroyed by Balthazar. Whether you piss off Balthazar or not, Melissan will call you to say get on with it if you muck about too long.
Yaga Shura has camped in another town his army sacked and pillaged. They’re leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. The army is growing and security is lax. There’s many patrols (they actually move around patrolling their zone) on the maps surrounding the main camp but it’s very easy to persuade patrols that you’re here to join like all others. If you do, you’re told to report to recruitment officer in main camp and when you meet him, you get your papers. Now you’re free to come and go as you wish. It’s also possible to reach the army camp by evading every patrol or just killing one, where guards will again tell you to report to recruitment officer. But if you kill more than one patrol, you get about an hour of realtime before army mages identify you and whole camp goes hostile (which is game over). This place is basically the same as Bandit Camp of BG1 but much bigger, sprawled over 4 maps. But you can’t actually reach Yaga Shura’s command tent, it’s guarded by elite guards who let none pass. There’s many different bands of mercenaries and friction is common, but Yaga Shura has elite guards (the only ones in whole camp that wear Yaga Shura’s uniforms) to keep order. You can cause all manner of trouble by playing mercs against others or goading the occasional evil adventurers into attacking you but every such action will bring elite guards down on your head. Fighting these guys would make whole army hostile and isn’t possible. Of course, there’s nothing to do except causing trouble.
As soon as you show anything but complete subservience to elite guards or after third time you cause trouble, you’ll get arrested. You’ll be put in a cell and meet a familiar face in elite guard uniform: Illasera or Gromnir (whichever is still alive). You learn that while you were messing around, she/he infiltrated Yaga’s army all the way into the elite guard. You still don’t know that Gromnir is a doppleganger if he’s alive and he’ll gloss over the questions of how he’s still alive despite Yaga claiming that he personally killed him or that no one recognizes him despite being famous, while Illasera is already unknown to general public. She/he demands to know what you’re doing here and you’ll have to explain how Yaga Shura’s invincibility can be removed (else she/he will happily have you executed). This will please her/him and she/he will tell you that Yaga Shura is dumb enough to carry the talisman you describe on his person instead of hiding it somewhere safe and secret. A skilled thief could take it from him even in the heat of battle. She/he will then get your party elite guard disguises to help her/him reach Yaga Shura and finally kill him (you have the option of rearranging your party at this point). You’ll have follow her/him like lemmings through the camp to evade other elite guard patrols (if another elite guard spots you it’s game over, which she/he helpfully mentions beforehand). If you’re with Illasera, she’ll manage to get past the first few layers of security but you’ll have to step in and help her convince the guards; a few more layers of security can be passed this way but the last line of guards will not be fooled and will attack. You’ll need to kill every soldier nearby to prevent alarm and enter the command tent (the only reason this even works at all is because of Illasera being a lawnmower, she easily kills every soldier who tries to run away to sound alarm or bring reinforcements). If you’re with Gromnir, he’ll talk his way through everything and actually get you inside the command tent so you’ll get to see how much of a smooth operator Gromnir is.
Inside the tent, you’ll find Yaga Shura and his generals. He instantly recognizes Gromnir/Illasera and attacks (Yaga Shura isn’t the kind of guy who believes in engaging his enemies in banter before slaughtering them). Regardless of how you came in, you have a timer before the alarm is raised and you get a game over. Yaga Shura himself is an extremely dangerous melee fighter in addition to his invincibility, and his flunkies in the tent are the best and most powerful his army has to offer. You must kill everyone else in the tent while keeping the invincible orc busy. Once he’s alone, a dialog will pop up and your thief will steal the talisman (clearly you have a thief after explicitly being told to bring a thief, because not having brought a thief would be dumb also you get the most humiliating game over) and ram it into Yaga Shura’s chest. Sadly for you, the orc witch didn’t mention that the invincibility will fade with time so you’re still unable to harm Yaga Shura at all. But he’s spooked now and escapes the tent to bring his soldiers to deal with you. If you’re with Illasera, she’ll teleport away now leaving you to die. If you’re with Gromnir, he’ll run out like Yaga Shura and disappear (you’ll still not know that he’s a doppelganger). You’re gonna have to fight your way out through waves and waves of elite guards and ordinary soldiers as you look for a place to ditch your elite guard disguises where no one can see you. Once you manage that, everyone will turn blue (for a short time) allowing you to escape the camp. If you ever come back after this, everyone will be hostile permenantly. Melissan will call you to talk about these events and will be very happy. She’ll promise to get the generals off of their asses now that Yaga Shura isn’t invincible.
Unlike Yaga Shura’s camp, Abazigal’s home (which is a giant cave entrance) is completely unguarded when you get there, except for Abazigal himself. He’s a very arrogant and ugly half blue dragon in a very strange armor with glowing parts. This is a very very magical armor. He knows of you and is happy that you came right to his door to get killed. He then attacks. He’s as lethal a fighter as Yaga Shura is naturally, and his armor can cast all sorts of spells which makes him more or less a maxed out fighter/mage. But it only makes him nearly invulnerable: he still takes tiny amounts of damage. But he has some regeneration too so he’s almost constantly uninjured. After a long and arduous battle, you eventually manage to make him lose some hp. At which point he mockingly drinks a potion to heal back to full and gloats over your inability to harm him even in this weak form. Then he switches to his actual form to let you tremble in fear before his real majesty: that of a blue dragon in what’s essentially Iron Man armor. Now he’ll generously let you flee for your pathetic lives and might even indulge your questions if you beg sufficiently well. Swallowing your pride to ask him questions only serves to make him insult you further without really giving any important information. Abazigal’s power armor has a giant chest mounted deathray of DOOM in dragon form, no way you’re fighting him. When you leave Abazigal’s doorstep, you get a call from Melissan asking your progress. She’s horrified to learn that Abazigal is such a terrible foe that makes even the invincible Yaga Shura look surmountable. Draconis is also a blue dragon and is known to be a master artficier with thousands of years of experience, so Melissan concludes that Abazigal is her son and that armor was made by her. Dragons always have creatures that serve them, so she thinks you can find and question some to find a way to enter Abazigal’s lair. She advises you to sneak into Abazigal’s lair and look for clues about his armor’s weaknesses. Melissan is certain that Abazigal didn’t make that armor himself and it might be possible that if it’s somehow sabotaged or broken, he won’t be able to repair it.
So now you must search the mountainous maps surrounding Abazigal’s lair, looking for something to interrogate. This part is also reminiscent of BG1 (there’s a lot such occasions) and its world wandering. You find what you’re looking for in a village of *insert monster race here* enslaved by dragons. After you kill their warriors, you talk to noncombatants and learn that they serve Draconis and that she’s even bigger and shinier than her son Abazigal. They say that an underground river passes through dragons’ lair and you can get inside from there. Unfortunately, there’s a tribe of *insert water dwelling monster here* that also serve the dragons. You dispatch those monsters too and gain entrance to Abazigal’s lair. The lair is a string of collosal caves connected with a dragon sized tunnel. There’s also some small side caves where their various servants live. Draconis is in her workshop at the very end and Abazigal randomly moves between caves every few minutes doing dragonly things. You must find the various magical and ordinary keys to open workshop doors and reach Draconis while hiding from Abazigal in siderooms. If Abazigal sees you, he’ll be annoyed and will calm himself by attacking you without using his megalaser of DOOM and you’ll have to escape all the way out and try coming in from the river again (or maybe just reload). And if he sees you again on your second try, he’ll be angry enough to not care about damaging his lair and kill you instantly using his mega death laser of DOOM.
When you finally reach Draconis’ workshop, the first thing you notice will be another set of dragon power armor; even bigger and with more shiny bits than Abazigal’s. Second thing you notice will be the ancient blue wyrm who’s not wearing it at the moment. There’s also all manner of wonderful toys around but you have no opportunity to examine. She recognizes you as a Bhaalspawn and you get a long chat with Draconis. She’s a lot more personable than her son but still regards you as an insect that needs crushing. Luckily she thinks you might prove useful to her cause, which is killing every other Bhaalspawn. You’ll learn that Abazigal was conceived of willingly unlike most Bhaalspawn. Draconis actually sought out Bhaal to bear his child. She believes Aluando’s propecy means that Bhaal’s last surviving child will inherit his divine mantle and now that she’s so old (with maybe a thousand years left to live), she wants to be a god’s mother and the favored follower of the new Lord of Murder. What she wants from you is to find where that mysterious Sendai is hiding and tell her. Your reward will be not getting killed right now, which is a very generous offer far as Draconis is concerned. If you agree, she’ll call Abazigal and tell him to allow you to leave. If you refuse, she gets angry and calls Abazigal to help her kill you. From their interaction it becomes clear that, for all his power, Abazigal is a giant pussy who wouldn’t dare do anything his mommy doesn’t let him (he’s basically an adolescent kid far as dragons go). If you’re fighting them, Abazigal will again not use his giant megalaser to not mess up his mother’s precious workshop. A horde of various critters will also come in to help the dragons. You must injure Draconis enough to make them stop attacking (trying to hurt Abazigal is futile) and since Draconis can’t put on her own power armor in combat, you can manage that but it’ll be a very hard battle. If you wound Draconis, she’ll express some grudging respect and allow you to leave their lair and tells you to inform her if you find where Sendai is hiding. If you accepted Draconis’ offer, both dragons will be mocking and threatening you as you leave. A quick chat with Melissan about this turn of events finishes up this portion.
When you’ve completed all three portions of chapter 4, last conversation with Melissan will end the chapter. Melissan speculates that while Yaga Shura will definitely get his generals resurrected, his army will lose morale once the news of assasins striking right into their heart and killing off their top brass spreads and since you killed so many of his elite guards, internal discipline will suffer. Infighting and deserters are inevitable. And since Yaga Shura isn’t invincible any more, when the armies of allied nations (they already started to break camp) catch up with them they’ll be defeated soundly. But Melissan’s happiness about the approaching fall of Yaga Shura pales agains the threat of Abazigal. She hopes Balthazar will listen to reason once he learns of Abazigal but what help a simple monk can offer against two power armored dragons is unknown. On top of all this, that mysterious mastermind Sendai hasn’t even been heard of yet. Things are still grim.
Chapter 5:
This chapter starts with the obligatory freaky dream sequence but things suddenly get weirder than usual when Bhaal drops dead mid sentence and Cyric (the god of more or less everything bad ever and the guy who originally killed Bhaal and took his place) appears. He says this is not an ordinary freaky dream sequence and you really are in contact with Prince of Lies now. He wants to make a deal with you and, as a token of goodwill, he’ll tell you where Sendai is. She’s created a pocket plane for herself inside Bhaal’s domain (similar to the one you visited when Irenicus died) and is hiding there, unreachable for mortals. Cyric’s generous deal is this: you swear to him to not claim the Throne of Bhaal for yourself when the chance is offered, and Cyric will not make this deal with another Bhaalspawn. He explains that the last surviving Bhaalspawn will indeed inherit all of Bhaal’s unclaimed power but this will destroy him as well and Bhaal will be reborn instead. Cyric is opposing the return of Bhaal because he’d be a rival for Cyric, also Faerun already has far too many evil gods so you’re morally obligated to help him stop the appearance of another. Cyric’s deal is the best you can hope for: you’ll either get killed by another Bhaalspawn, or your soul will be utterly destroyed when Bhaal reincarnates in your body. Unsaid but quite clear threat is that refusal means he’ll help another Bhaalspawn kill you.
When you wake up, you can talk to your party members about this. More importantly, you can talk to Melissan about Sendai hiding in Bhaal’s domain. Telling her about Cyric and freaky Bhaal dreams is optional (which will stress her out and she insists you refuse whatever Cyric offers just on principle). She suggests you talk to Balthazar while she does whatever it is that bards do to gather information. In other news Yaga Shura’s days are numbered, he’s on the run and his soldiers are deserting en masse.
So you go to Amkethran and this time Balthazar greets you himself. He’s a no nonsense LG human monk. He’s meeting you now because he had a freaky dream where Cyric told him you’re coming and that he should aid you to prevent the return of Bhaal. The fact that Prince of Lies has an interest in him disturbs Balthazar to no end and he’s extremely suspicious of you just because of Cyric’s endorsement. He’ll only agree to aid you after you tell him all you know about the Bhaalspawn conspiracy and your own Cyric dream. Once convinced, he’ll tell you he knows of a way to actually open a gate to Bhaal’s realm and you’ll have to go on a scavenger hunt to bring him the thingies needs to perform the ritual. The monastery used to be a Bhaal temple and still has unholy stuff lying around (that’s how he knows of a way to reach Bhaal’s domain), and allow you to stay in as guests. Monastery will be the “town” of this chapter (with small sidequests and maybe a few sparring matches against monks). But if you pissed him off before, he wants you to get lost and not come back without the thingies he wants so you don’t get to see inside. Melissan will also confirm that Sendai is hiding in Bhaal’s realm. She also knows Balthazar’s monastery used to be a Bhaal temple and thinks he can be trusted. She also also knows where you can find the thingies Balthazar wants. So you venture forth into a few dungeons populated by monsters or undead Bhaal worshippers or whatever, and find the thingies. If Balthazar let you in, you can go back after each one to chat with him. He’s very stern and serious but he’s fully committed to greater good and destruction of evil. But he’s still suspicious of you.
When you finally get all the thingies, you go back to monastery for a very long chat sequence. You meet Balthazar in his room and there’s someone else: Melissan. She did whatever it is bards do to gather information and came here to meet Balthazar and you. Her info says Sendai is a phenomenally powerful mage who hits every single note of the classic mad wizard trope: from new breeds of bizarre hybrid creatures to armies of charmed/dominated slaves, she has every imaginable thing to throw at an invader to her pocket plane. If asked, Melissan also mentions that she left Tethyr army because they’d caught up with the enemy and the generals were assuring Melissan of victory (though she hasn’t actually witnessed Yaga Shura’s death, which sounds fishy for party members who are more genre aware). But even if Yaga somehow survives, both Abazigal and Sendai are infinitely more dangerous and it’s vital for the good of everyone that they’re destroyed as soon as possible.
Balthazar wants to open the gate right now and attack Sendai head on, while Melissan wants you to get help from Draconis because Sendai will certainly notice someone is attacking her as soon as Balthazar opens the gate. Balthazar will have none of that and they argue for a while.
INTERLUDE:
Throughout the game, that very first guy who joined your party after falling for Imoen at first sight will pursue her relentlessly. Gradually Imoen will warm up to him (no reason why the player character must always be the one who gets the action). She’ll occasionally ask your opinion on this subject. Each time she brings it up, you’ll have 3 options: you can support this relationship, you can oppose it, or you can be indifferent. No matter what you say, their relationship will progress to the point where they start talking about marriage. The only effect of your opinion on the matter will be how the NPC regards you. He sees a supportive Charname as a brother, while hating an opposed Charname’s guts. He won’t care one way or the other about a Charname who doesn’t give a damn about Imoen.
Whatever the case, they just went to the nearest priest and got married (which explains where those two have been) and are now interrupting your meeting with news of this. Melissan is thrilled (but underlines their terrible timing and your extremely dangerous enemies) and even Balthazar seems amused. What happens next depends on the groom’s opinion of you: If he likes you, he mentions he’d love to go away with Imoen but you need all the help you can get and they’ll support you to the bitter end. If he doesn’t much care for you, he’s aware of how dangerous it is around you and wants to leave with Imoen but Imoen persuades him otherwise. If he hates you; he’s adamant on not risking his or Imoen’s life any further for your benefit. You’re gonna have to convince Imoen to make them both stay, which causes them to have their very first fight just minutes after getting married (you can actually fail to convince Imoen and they’ll leave if that happens). Or you can just send them away if you want. If they’re going, Melissan volunteers to help them find someplace safe and distant.
Afterwards you continue your discussion about Sendai. Balthazar will open the gate for you but he’ll never agree to cooperate with Abazigal, so you’ll have to choose which Bhaalspawn’s help you want for the assault on Sendai. Whatever you decide, Melissan will leave to check the Tethyrian army (Imoen and her husband leaves with her if applicable here). Balthazar will be performing the ritual in wilderness, far away from Amkethran and he mark the spot on your map. Then you go there, possibly after a night’s rest in monastery where you can talk to your party about the latest events (and get berated by the game if/when you try to enter the newlyweds’ room).
If you’d chosen to ask Abazigal for help, both Abazigal and Draconis are waiting for you at ritual site. Balthazar then reveals an important fact he hadn’t mentioned until now: The ritual needs a Bhaalspawn sacrifice and he thinks the best candidate for it is Abazigal. Dragons decide that you’ve betrayed them and attack. Luckily for you, Balthazar is literally invincible as he has the greatest power of all: he can look at the future to see how he’s gonna die and then avoid that death, aka he savescums like a motherfucker. It’s impossible to kill him unless he wants to die. He kills Abazigal with one hit (this takes thousands of tries for him but of course neither you nor Draconis can possibly know that). Cue boss battle of Chapter 5: Draconis in her shiny power armor. However Balthazar won’t help you, he’ll be busy doing the ritual. You’ll have to occupy Draconis long enough for him to finish. This will be a very hard battle as you can’t even scratch the paint on Draconis’ armor. But when you manage to hold her until Balthazar opens the portal, dozens of of identical women burst out from it (you might recognize Sendai from her little cameo from chapter 2) and they start unloading into Draconis with a dazzling display of magic. Balthazar urges you to go in with him while Sendais are busy.
If you’d chosen to not ask Abazigal’s help, Balthazar is waiting for you at ritual site. He has bad news for you. The ritual needs a bit of Bhaal’s own power and he was hoping the thingies you gathered (which were all related to Bhaal one way or other) would be enough but it wasn’t. He’s gonna need a Bhaalspawn sacrifice (and his LGness would never allow him to kill some random Bhaalspawn or Imoen for this). There’s a few possibilities at this point:
-If you’d killed Balthazar’s monks or if your alignment is any evil, he’s determined to kill you here.
-If your alignment is any neutral, Balthazar decided that you’ll be a necessary sacrifice for the greater good.
-If your alignment is any good, Balthazar thinks the stronger of you should live on to vanquish evil so he tries to persuade you to let him kill you. You’ll get a unique game over if you agree (one where Balthazar goes on kill every other Bhaalspawn but then kills himself because Cyric deceived him into believing that will destroy Bhaal’s evil power, alas it only lets Cyric absorb Bhaal’s power since there’s no successor, a pretty bad result for everyone), otherwise you have to fight him to prove you’re stronger.
-And if you happen to be a paladin, Balthazar will kill himself instead.
Sadly for you, Balthazar can reload (as has been mentioned above). On top of being impossible to defeat, he also punches very hard and will ignore everyone except you. Your battle with him will consist of either running around (which won’t work all that well since he’s a monk) or depleting that mountain of healing potions you’ve accumulated by now. After a while, he’ll talk to you (assuming he doesn’t hate you, if he hates your guts he’ll only taunt you) and explain why he’s invincible. After more running away on your part, you’ll get to talk again and will have to try convincing him that you should live instead of him. This will happen a number of times, it’s a conversation puzzle broken up with combat sequences. You have a set amount of time to convince him you have a better chance of destroying all Bhaalspawn until Balthazar tires of playing fair and kills you.
When you convince Balthazar, he’ll explain how ritual should be done and kill himself. When he does that, Abazigal and Draconis teleport in. Draconis has been scrying you since you met her and knows everything now. She suggests you run because your usefulness has ended and as soon as they’re done with Sendai, they’ll be coming for you. Then the dragons perform the ritual and open a portal to Sendai’s pocket plane. As above, dozens of Sendais pour out and attack the dragons with far too much magic. Dragons win (but barely) and Draconis comes to you. Her armor is pretty damaged and Abazigal’s is almost destroyed. She’s figured that Sendai has some kind of modified Simulacrum/Project Image spell that allows her images to create more images to essentially create hundreds of epic mages at once. They might have destroyed most or all of her copies for today, but Sendai can send just as many images every single day till her enemies are destroyed. You must help Draconis (Abazigal is sent back home to lick his wounds on mom’s orders) go inside and defeat Sendai while she’s out of fakes. So you go in with Draconis.
[These survival battles against Draconis or Balthazar should be equal in difficulty. This event marks the first big split in storyline. You’ll be with fighting along either Balthazar or Draconis in chapter 6 (which doesn’t change all that much) but ending will change a lot depending on what happens here.]
Chapter 6
Entrance to Sendai’s pocket plane (which is identical to the one at end of BG2, but with walls added to make it into a long and winding corridor) will be the hardest battle in game and you’ll be entering with your entire party (instead of usual 6). Plus you’ll have either Balthazar or human Draconis (she’s a maxed out fighter/mage just like Abazigal) fighting alongside you. As Melissan warned you, even with every party member plus an invincible ally, Sendai’s forces are tough (you wouldn’t even stand a chance without an unkillable ally). There’s everything from bomb loaded kamikaze kobolds to Slayers Sendai somehow managed to control and everything in between, plus even more Sendai clones (all of whom are epic mages). They’ll be coming in waves (allowing you to save in between). After about 10 waves of increasingly hard armies are defeated, a single Sendai will approach you to talk. She’ll reveal that she’s been watching you all along under different guises. She was in that crappy town of chapter 1, inside Saradush under multiple guises, at Yaga Shura’s fortress, at both army camps you visited, at Amkethran and she was even at elven palace during tutorial as one of the nameless NPCs (being able to be in a hundred places at the same time also explains how she masterminded the Bhaalspawn conspiracy).
[If you had been systematically casting dispel magic at nameless NPCs filling the world throughout the entire game, you’d have found that there’s been a disguised Sendai somewhere on every single civilized map you’ve been in (the player can confirm this to be true on a second playthrough because this is the sort of tiny thing that makes nerds adore a game beyond reason).]
She has an offer for you now: Sendai found a way to seperate Bhaal’s essence from a Bhaalspawn, effectively making them mortal, and she’ll give you a normal life free from struggles and dangers of this prophecy business. You will be cured of Bhaalspawnism with no side effects. Sendai claims this to be your only hope of having a normal life because otherwise she or another Bhaalspawn will kill you.
Her offer is valid for Imoen and Balthazar too if they happen to be here. Imoen likes the idea but doesn’t trust her and refuses. And Balthazar will have none of that; no mercy, no compromise. And if you’re with Draconis, she’s very interested to get her claws on this spell but sees no reason to not take it off Sendai’s disintegrating corpse. When you refuse (you do have the chance of accepting her offer to end the game right here and she’ll truly remove your Bhaal essence and you become a mortal and get to live out the rest of your life in peace, while Sendai goes on to become the new Lady of Murder), Sendai brings in more of her armies and attacks you. Your ally will mention that you must advance deeper into the plane and reach the real Sendai, staying at portal until you’re swamped won’t do. So you press forward in constant combat, fighting through a long corridor filled with all manner of respawning powerful enemies and Sendai clones. This is by far the craziest battle, you’re likely to hit the xp cap by the time you reach doors of the last room (where you finally get an autosave).
Inside the last room is Sendai’s final defenders and one last Sendai is at the back of the room performing a very long ritual. Sendai has enlisted the services something extremely powerful (something comparable to Demogorgon from BG2: Watcher Keep) and the barriers protecting Sendai is kept in place by her ally. You must defeat this epic enemy to reach Sendai. Sendai says that even the Steward to the Throne of Bhaal can’t stop her now, but doesn’t elaborate on that. Cue the boss battle of Chapter 6. When you finally defeat him/her/it/they the barriers protecting Sendai drops. Unfortunately for you, Sendai’s Essence Syphon ritual takes exactly this long to perform and her spell hits you (and Imoen and Balthazar if they’re here, and Balthazar’s savescumming power is taken along with his Bhaalspawnship so no escape for him either). And a cutscene vaguely similar to the baptism scene from Godfather ensues (for the player’s benefit).
[Illasera (if she’s alive) is by herself somewhere in wilderness when suddenly a dozen Sendais teleport in. She immediately starts shooting and destroys a few clones but they all throw various immobilizing spells to prevent her from teleporting, then they kill her once trapped.
Gromnir (if he’s alive) is in Amkethran talking to some villagers when suddenly a dozen Sendais teleport in and throw a dozen Flesh to Stone spells on him. He gets petrified and is then broken.
Yaga Shura is on a battlefield destroying any Tethyr soldier that gets in his way. A whole bunch of Sendais suddenly teleport in and shower him with magic. He dies.
Abazigal (if he’s alive) is in his lair, fretting. Suddenly a wall busts in and a swarm of earth elementals charge. While he’s busy with them a very large number of Sendais come in from the same tunnel and Abazigal also goes down to Sendai clones.
Maybe there’s a bunch of other nameless NPCs being killed by Sendai clones too.]
Sendai exclaims that she’s won. She immediately dissolves the pocket plane and Chapter 7 starts with you all dropping out into the Throne of Bhaal.
Chapter 7
You’re at the bottom of the Well of Statues (last seen after Sarevok’s death). It’s a pretty impressive place and cutscene shows that all statues are broken except for Sendai’s. Sendai gloats that she’s won despite your assault on her plane. She’s a classically maddened wizard and monologuing is mandatory far as she’s concerned. She starts explaining her masterplan (which she had to change because of your intrusion into her plane) but she’s interrupted by the arrival of someone: Melissan, but she’s in a black spiky costume of DOOM for some reason.
Melissan introduces herself properly at last, Melissan the Blackhearted, High Priestess and Chief Executor of Bhaal, Something of Something Else and Other Things... She has a pretty long title that ends with Steward to the Throne of Bhaal (she also kills Draconis if she’s there with great glee, claiming that her bid for Melissan’s position is dead along with her pathetic worm of a son). She was the most loyal of Bhaal’s followers and he had entrusted her to oversee his rebirth. She now commands all of Bhaal’s gathered power and will continue to do so until someone becomes the Lord of Murder. She’s been trying to get all Bhaalspawn killed to get their power pooled back in the Throne. If Imoen had left your party, you’ll learn here that Melissan had her killed too.
She’s angry to see that Sendai is here (whom she calls a jumped up mirror image) and confused that you (along with Imoen and Balthazar if applicable) should be where Sendai is standing according to her Bhaalspawn senses (she can sense every Bhaalspawn as part of her duty). Cyric appears (much to Melissan’s chagrin) and gives the final piece of exposition for everyone: There’s no *real* Sendai and hasn’t been for quite some time. He explains that when real Sendai first created and cast her Improved Simulacrum spell, it created an exact replica of herself instead of the docile puppet she expected; this was a seperate person from original Sendai but with exact same personality and skills. The illusion had no intention of being a slave, so she killed the original and took her place. Sadly she was trapped inside Sendai’s lab which had the permenancy spells built in to keep her “alive” after her original duration ran out (that final room). Since she was just as smart and capable as the real Sendai, she created a newer version of the spell that created her but made sure *her* copies couldn’t do what she did. Then she used those copies for everything. It was the copy who created the Essence Syphon ritual as well, which she just used to take Bhaalspawnism from you (and Balthazar and Imoen if applicable).
Sendai gloats further and says that during her ritual, her copies on Faerun simultaneously attacked and killed every other surviving Bhaalspawn, leaving Sendai the only person alive who has Bhaal essence. So now she’s not just a *real* Bhaalspawn, but *the* Bhaalspawn. She’s won the contest and requests Melissan hand over the Throne of Bhaal to her. Melissan ignores her and demands to know why Cyric the Usurper is here. Cyric reveals that he’s been invited by Sendai; it was she who first contacted Cyric to ask for help and Cyric supported her every step of the way until now (which means Cyric had been the actual mastermind behind the mastermind of Bhaalspawn conspiracy from the very beginning). And now Sendai is going to split Bhaal’s power with him to become the Lady of Murder and a consort goddess of Cyric. This Sendai is virtually a lie given form and the Prince of Lies likes her very much.
Melissan is frothing with rage and tries to argue technicalities (namely that you/Imoen/Balthazar are still alive). If Balthazar is here, Cyric answers this by killing him, which enrages Melissan even further. Then Cyric asks you (and Imoen) if you even want to be Lord of Murder. Imoen doesn’t.
[All of this should be explained in a less info dump manner, preferably with some input from Charname and party as well.]
This is the second big split in the story and will determine the ending:
A: You don’t want to be Lord of Murder, Balthazar died here (Melissan is extremely pissed and willing to risk Bhaal’s resurrection because of it, final boss is BHAAL): Melissan formally bestows the Throne to you despite everyone’s objections, violating the rules of Bhaal’s resurrection ritual that requires power to be bestowed into the last Bhaalspawn standing. The final battle will be against Bhaal himself inside your soul (you’ll have the “impression” of your party to help you in your mind to not upset gameplay). If you lose Bhaal is reborn and your soul is consumed. If you win your epic mental struggle against Bhaal, you’ll have mastered the taint and officially inherited the Throne, much to everyone’s surprise. You tear the stolen essence off from Sendai, which destroys her since her original duration ran out a very long time ago. You kick Cyric out of your domain. Melissan bows before you since you’re now her god and accepts whatever judgement you pass on her. Your final choice is either embracing godhood (you become the new Lord of Murder and reign as you like) or scattering the power itself (so Bhaal’s power is broken forever and no one will take his place and you’ll live on as a mortal).
B: You don’t want to be Lord of Murder, Draconis died here OR you want to be Lord of Murder, Balthazar died here (Melissan is pissed but not enough to endanger Bhaal’s resurrection, final boss is SENDAI): Melissan starts pumping Bhaal’s essence into you whether you like it or not (she can’t outright bestow the Throne to you because that’d risk the ritual but she can bend the rules this way). Cyric decides this is violating the rules and brings an army of his servants to support Sendai’s bid. Cue final battle where you fight alongside Melissan against Cyric as you absorb more and more power growing stronger. Melissan fights Cyric’s avatar and you must destroy his legions and kill Sendai before Cyric batters Melissan into submission. When Sendai dies, Cyric is defeated and withdraws. Melissan realizes she made a big mistake in gradually filling you with power while you’re fighting instead overwhelming you with all of it, which is why Bhaal couldn’t consume your soul. Melissan bows before you since you’re now her god and accepts whatever judgement you pass on her. Your final choice is either embracing godhood (you become the new Lord of Murder and reign as you like) or scattering the power itself (so Bhaal’s power is broken forever and no one will take his place and you’ll live on as a mortal).
C: You want to be Lord of Murder, Draconis died here (Melisssan isn’t pissed at all, final boss is CYRIC): Melissan proclaims that Sendai doesn’t count and kills her. This pisses off Cyric too much and *he* breaks the rules by manifesting himself and attacking you. Cue final battle against Cyric while Melissan pumps Bhaal’s essence into you. You must survive against invincible Cyric’s very intense assault until you absorb enough of Bhaal’s power to be able to kick him out (a short but very hard battle for survival). When you finally amass enough power to banish him from the Throne, Cyric claims that if you accept and use so much of Bhaal’s power willingly it’ll stick to you, allowing Melissan to pour all the rest of Bhaal’s essence into you at once and you’ll be consumed by Bhaal’s resurrection. Melissan claims Cyric lies and you not taking power will leave the power up for grabs by any other evil god, such as Cyric. Your final choice is either taking the rest of the power (Cyric didn’t lie for once, taking the power will destroy you and bring Bhaal back) or discarding the power you already have without banishing Cyric (defeat on this last second is too much for Melissan, she snaps and takes the power for herself to prevent Cyric from winning anyway and becomes the new Lady of Murder, you’re kicked back into Faerun and live on as a mortal).
D: Extra special evil ending (you must have the following: evil alignment, killed Balthazar’s monks, kicked Imoen off the party when she got married, convinced Balthazar to kill himself using evilest options, beat up Draconis in chapter 4 using the most bloodthirsty dialogue option, maybe done a few sidequests in the evil way or took evil options in some specific conversations, want to be Lord of Murder): Same as C but after you take the power, you do the mental battle with Bhaal from ending A instead of getting a final choice. You become the new Lord of Murder and terrorize the universe.
E: Extra special good ending with sugar on top (you must have the following: good alignment, not killed Balthazar’s monks, supported Imoen’s relationship and kept her in party, beat up Draconis in chapter 4 using the noble dialogue choice, maybe done a few sidequests in the good way or took good options in some specific conversations, Balthazar died here, don’t want to be Lord of Murder): Same as A but then Melissan refuses to yield to a goody two shoes and starts taking the power for herself. Final battle against Melissan must be won before she recovers enough of Bhaal’s scattering power and destroys you. Then Bhaal’s power is broken forever and you live on as a mortal.
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Hopefully now that I expelled all that from my brain, I'll continue on with my life. Cheers for anyone who actually read all that stuff!
I especially liked your suggestions for rewriting Draconis and Abazigal, and fleshing out the Five Bhaalspawn to make them all more interesting. Kudos for writing up something so long and interesting - this sounds like a more complex and epic outline for the Throne of Bhaal plot.
