Jump to content

Restored Rhynn Lanthorn Quest


Recommended Posts

7 hours ago, DavidW said:

Conceptually, I'm less convinced. Spellhold is on the same island as Brynnlaw; Brynnlaw is reachable by mundane vessels; it is at least moderately well known by commoners at Brynnlaw that Spellhold is there.

Yeah, but I never understood why, then, it isn't moderately well known by everyone else that Spellhold is there.  I'm playing through Chapter 2 right now. Nobody knows what or where Spellhold is, nobody knows where Imoen might have gone, the only people who can possibly help are Bodhi and the Shadow Thieves.  And the Shadow Thieves can only help me get there once they have amassed a small fortune for... ferry tickets?  As soon as the game decides it is time to go to spellhold, suddenly every commoner knows that Imoen has been taken "just over to yon island, first creepy house on the right."

Well, every commoner on Brynnlaw at least.  And if Brynnlaw is just some mundane island with a bustling port, that difference makes no sense. But if there is something special about Brynnlaw, something that makes it mysterious to all the commoners and everyone else on the mainland... if there is something magical about it (!), then it makes more sense.  Maybe it is some forgotten glamer - something elven in origin, a precursor or test for the mythal that hides Evermeet.  Forgotten, ancient magicks adapted to modern use (piracy)!  That would align nicely with the world's history and lore, and explain the island being unknown to everyone on the mainland, and jive with the fact that the lenses necessary to find it are elven in nature.  This all doesn't need to be spelled out of course. 

7 hours ago, DavidW said:

If you join with Bodhi, she knows where Spellhold is anyway, and by that stage she's probably keen to get you there.

I didn't think about this.  (Who ever joins Bodhi?  All these years later, it still seems odd to me that that is even an option in the game. Even if you play evil, it makes more sense to me to be evil and still fight against Bodhi.)  Of course this exposes a bigger conceptual problem with joining Bodhi, to wit, why sail to Spellhold at all then?  Why not pull that poisoning trick back on the mainland, and then teleport you to Spellhold when you are unconscious?

Maybe the device needed to get to Brynlaw and the device needed to find Suldanesselar should be one and the same - the Rynn Lanthorn.  Irenicus and Bodhi want it anyway, right?  How did they get it?  Maybe in chapter 3 they use Charname to find assemble it; whereas, if you side with the Shadow Thieves, they stay abreast of your progress, and conveniently nick it when you get knocked out.

Edited by subtledoctor
Link to comment

This is a long way outside the scope of my minimal little restoration mod, I'm afraid! (And as I say, for my own use i'm happy with the SCS cash-increase component as the resolution to the chapter 2 problem.) But if you want to try working it out, you're welcome to borrow the code in this mod - as I say, on a technical level it's not that complicated to modify the mod to achieve what you want, it's just a matter or working out a backstory and dialog that you're happy with. (Or, alternatively, if you want to write up the dialog and the like, I might be willing to implement and host it.)

(As for where Bodhi and Irenicus got the Lanthorn: Bodhi stole it from the elven temple in AR2500, using the drow attack as cover - Elhan tells you. I don't think it's a good idea to use the Lanthorn as your ch.3 Maguffin - you'd have to mess with the dialog with Elhan to allow for the player knowing what it is already... I mean, that could be cool, but it's getting a bit out of control and a fair way from the original game's story.)

Link to comment
2 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

I didn't think about this.  (Who ever joins Bodhi?  All these years later, it still seems odd to me that that is even an option in the game. Even if you play evil, it makes more sense to me to be evil and still fight against Bodhi.)

...I usually join Bodhi. She's more charismatic than Gaelan Bayle (her and Irenicus are probably my favorite characters in the game!) and you get better stuff from destroying the Shadow Thieves, :p.

Edited by Bartimaeus
Link to comment
Just now, DavidW said:

Who ever joins Bodhi?    decides to team up with a hot cold vampire chick?

Vampires are cold.

EDIT - and yet, reflecting on this, in most of the fiction they are not portrayed as such.  Or at least it's not mentioned much.  But they  must be cold, right?  Yick.

Link to comment

Like an icebox.  It reminds me of how in Star Trek Voyager, one of the alien crew members, Kes, had a body temperature of 14-16.9 °C (57.2°F to 62.4°F).  Apparently she was sweating all the time (or whatever was her species' equivalent), since that is lower than room temperature in most places.  Or it just meant that the writer just wanted to throw an alien sounding line without thinking about any of the consequences.

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Caedwyr said:

Like an icebox.  It reminds me of how in Star Trek Voyager, one of the alien crew members, Kes, had a body temperature of 14-16.9 °C (57.2°F to 62.4°F).  Apparently she was sweating all the time (or whatever was her species' equivalent), since that is lower than room temperature in most places.  Or it just meant that the writer just wanted to throw an alien sounding line without thinking about any of the consequences.

She'd be cooking, think of the last time you were in 40°C heat with no wind.

Link to comment
12 hours ago, Endarire said:

@Bartimaeus

I only joined the Shadow Thieves because of the Necklace of Power.

But you get it either way - from Aran Linvail, or off Aran Linvail, :p. Plus you get his Elven Chain +1 (which is the first time you get elven chain IIRC in the vanilla game - unless you murder that one lady in the Trademeet family feud quest or otherwise get her killed?), plus the Ring of Djinni Summoning, plus the Rifthome Axe, plus any other items the Shadow Thief route has, PLUS you don't have to fight a bunch of annoying vampires. I hate having to cast negative plane protection constantly.

Edited by Bartimaeus
Link to comment

I usually do every quest possible in chapter 2-3 (everybody go for Carsomyr at the start of chapter 2, no?).
So, just an idea in case charname has already killed every owner of the lenses : Bodhi resurrects them and you have to kill them again (with 150% HP?).

Now I have written this idea, I don't find it that cool anymore...

Link to comment
On 6/5/2020 at 10:59 PM, subtledoctor said:

I didn't think about this.  (Who ever joins Bodhi?  All these years later, it still seems odd to me that that is even an option in the game. Even if you play evil, it makes more sense to me to be evil and still fight against Bodhi.)  Of course this exposes a bigger conceptual problem with joining Bodhi, to wit, why sail to Spellhold at all then?  Why not pull that poisoning trick back on the mainland, and then teleport you to Spellhold when you are unconscious?

Having done both, I actually prefer Bodhi's route. I can't stand the shadow thieves ever since running into Arkanis Gath years ago.

As for the poisoning trick, that question remains open regardless of whom you join (Yoshi could've poisoned the party while still on the mainland, or a tavernkeeper could be bribed). Imo, Irenicus patiently waiting in Spellhold for charname doesn't really make sense either. Oops! there goes your Bhaalspawn soulsource, dustified after opening the wrong door in Athkatla.

Link to comment

I don't find the poisoning sequence implausible, either way around.

(i) High-level adventurers are a pain to keep imprisoned, and even more of a pain to transport. It makes sense to let the party make it to Spellhold under their own steam and capture them as late as possible. 

(ii) The ship is a pretty good environment to organize a poisoning. (It's not the only such environment - but then, the plot wouldn't actually go differently if you were poisoned on the mainland, given that the effect of the poison is just to render the party vulnerable to a spell Jon casts, not to knock them out directly.)

As for the risk to Jon, he knows (at least something) about your destiny and is confident you'll make it. (No-one told him about tactical mods or no-reload playthroughs.) But in any case, he's got Imoen! He can hold out for the big prize, knowing he's got an insurance policy. (To anyone who thinks that Jon would give Imoen to Bodhi even if he failed to capture <CHARNAME>: would you like to buy Boareskyr Bridge for the low price of 50,000 gp?)

Link to comment

Cool ideas everyone! I surmise the reason the quest was cut was because by Chapter 6, the player just wants to charge ahead to Irenicus. He's been taunting them the whole  game, after all.  Other than the timing of it, I love the idea of hunting down items carried by various powerful "bosses" throughout Amn.

@subtledoctor I'd be very interested in what you come up with. SCS's increased fee isn't available for me as an EET player, and since I want Fade as quickly as possible (she's offered to your party by Aran Linvail), it's not much of an incentive. Heck,  in my current playthrough, I consoled in the gold, paid it, got Fade, then later on donated 15k to a temple to pay back what I "borrowed", so to speak.

I'm likely to start using Imoen4Ever on a permanent basis quite soon, so having another in-game reason to need to go cavorting about the realm sounds great.  Right now I sort of headcanon a vague idea of needing to gain power to rescue/defeat Imoen/Irenicus and quickly change the subject. Tying the macguffins into the stronghold quests sounds ideal. I'm one of those who wants to do all the everything before Brynnlaw.

 

Link to comment

Ohoh, nice!  I used Oversight's version, but as noted it doesn't work properly in combination with SCS.  Will definitely have to try this in my next bg2ee run.

Since this is actually restored content, I'd be happy to add it to Unfinished Business if you are so inclined.

Link to comment

It would be relatively easy to fix the SCS-compatibility - but in any case, Oversight's version isn't really a restoration, it's a reimagining.

Thanks for the offer of inclusion: I haven't decided what to do with it yet but I'll keep it in mind. UB is clearly at least one natural place to put it.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...