Now I’ve finished the two areas south of Beregost and have finally found my way to Nashkel.  I’ve started to realize why people don’t like Garrick: he has 6 hit points at level one and dies all the time.  He got killed by a gibberling of all things!  I ended up putting him in the rear with Imoen and let him use his crossbow but this didn’t last long as I quickly ran out of bolts.  First lesson learned is ranged weapons are your friend.

I then ran into a vampiric wolf.  Now understand it has been a long time since I’ve messed around with D&D or a D&D-based game so I’d forgotten that vampiric creatures can only be harmed by magical weapons.  It took me a couple of reloads to realize that I wasn’t going to win that fight at this point in the game.  I skirted around the wolf and continued south.

I ran into Foreshadow who let me know that Neverwinter Nights would be coming soon.  That was clever.  I ran into a member of The Flaming Fist near Nashkel.  I’d forgotten the fake-southern accent they have (“Ah serve tha Flaymin’ Fist!”).  I also ran into the ever-friendly Bub Snikt.

As my group was resting I had the first dream sequence.  I’d forgotten about them from when I played before.  They’re nice and completely unnecessary, which is why I like them.  They add some color to the game and help remind you that Something Big Is Going To Happen.

As we arrived at Nashkel we finished with Chapter One.  I remember Nashkel being a big place so I’m not sure how quickly I can find Minsc.  Once I have him I’ll need to rescue Dynaheir but she’s a good mage so those two should complete my group.

One interesting thing about Baldur’s Gate is how many possible characters you can add to your party.  For example: I bumped off Khalid and now I’ve found myself with the bard Garrick.  I don’t remember Garrick at all from before.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I never ran across the guy.  Now he’s in my party.  Do I want a bard in my party?  I’m not sure but I’ve decided to not stress too much about who I’m taking with me.  Garrick looks a bit like a weenie but he’ll be able to cast spells and can probably use a bow so he’ll make do.

I wrapped up a couple of quests in Beregost and made a short detour back to the Friendly Arm Inn to finish a quest.  No sooner had I arrived than Jaheira began complaining that I should be on the road to Nashkel.  I’d forgotten what a demanding little princess she is.  But I don’t want her to leave my party as she is my only healer so we’re now heading toward Nashkel.  I’m pretty sure that’s where Minsc hangs out.

My character is a mighty level two fighter by the way.  Tremble before me ye evildoers or I’ll be forced to use strong language!

So I guess I’m officially playing Baldur’s Gate now.  It seems to work really well on this little netbook.  The ability to pause to issue orders is nice as I’m not particularly deft with the trackpad.  And with the EasyTutu mod I can play it in 800×600 resolution so I’m partying like it’s 2000 instead of 1998.

It’s interesting to play this again after playing Baldur’s Gate II.  Admittedly that was almost 10 years ago so my memory is probably a bit cloudy but I don’t remember Imoen being quite so irritating.  Wasn’t she dark and brooding in the sequel?

We already had our brief but fatal encounter with Sarevok.  Gorion is a dead dude now and we buried him instead of running for our frickin’ lives from the Big Bad.

Our group arrived at the Friendly Arm Inn and defeated the weak wizard who was sent to kill my guy.  My guy’s name is Ratch Binatch by the way.  I liked the way it sounded.  Anyway, he’s dead and we met up with Jaheira and the always irritating Khalid.

Bet you can’t guess what I did as soon as I got out into the wilderness?  Yep.  I put Khalid in the lead, refused to heal him and watched him get eaten by a dire wolf.  No burial for him.

I’m going to move down toward Nashkel now.  I don’t remember where Misc is but I need to get Minsc.  I love Minsc.

I’m not sure I’m ready for this.

I got a spiffy new Asus 1000HE this past week so of course I’m putting some games on it to play around with.  Well I somehow wound up installing Baldur’s Gate II and then Baldur’s Gate, along with Arcanum and Planescape: Torment.  All of them look and work wonderfully on this little thing.

So I actually started up Baldur’s Gate for the first time in years.  I have no idea if I’m going to stick with it but I just left Candlekeep and am on my way with Imoen to the Friendly Arm Inn.

I’m making no commitments at this point but I could see me enjoying this.

My next random album of the week is Toxicity by System of a Down.  I ran across these guys in 2005 after I’d heard people talking about their Hypnotize and Mezmerize albums and wanted to check them out.  I was in a CD club that let me pick it up for $6 so I did.  Listening to Toxicity the first time was a definite “Holy crap!” experience.

I actually liked the album so much that I went ahead and bought several other albums by them: Steal This Album, Mesmerize and Hypnotize.  While they all sound good to me, none has had quite the hold on me that Toxicity has.  I’m not sure what they are singing about half the time (Psycho! Groupie! Cocaine! Crazy!) so I plan on spending some time with the lyrics (Pull the tapeworm out of your ass!) just to see if I can figure some of it out.