After my failed attempt at confronting the Sharrans under the House of Grief in Baldur’s Gate 3, I tried my luck at getting even at Astarion’s vampire bully. I finally figured out how to get to his mansion, which is in a weird location. Prowling the mansion felt very atmospheric. Surprisingly there were a couple of werewolves there as well. When I found out how to proceed to the obligatory cellar, I confronted our host. After two failed attempts I cheesed the fight by attacking him from afar.
Next I went snooping around at the foundry where the Steel Watchers are manufactured. I flew to the roof where I was confronted by a watcher. I managed to kill it on my own, which made me feel very powerful. Then I jumped down and sneaked around a bit. But then I couldn’t get out, because the camara can’t zoom up. Not only do I feel hampered by the isometric view in my enjoyment of the environment in these games, but it also has such practical drawbacks as this. Because I couldn’t get out, I let Astarion sneak into the compound and open the door. He too managed to kill a watcher by himself. He also felt mighty!
After that, I went back to the house of grief. This time, I managed to win the fight. At level 12 this fight went a lot better than in my previous attempt at level 11. What a difference a level makes!
Then I went to see the Bhaal tribunal again. Last time, I failed a deception roll and got mauled by the level 16 Sarevok. This time the dice roll succeeded and I got to prove myself by killing the weird elephant. I had mixed feelings about that, but I had no choice but to follow along. Lucky for me, Astarion one-shorted him with his high initiative. Therefore, he got to bade in blood instead of me. Something that should have made him happy, just like biting someone does, but somehow didn’t. Thankfully you get to feel somewhat less bad about the killing when reading the oliphant’s smug writings. Now we can progress.
And progress we did! I confronted Orin and she decimated us. I tried again with the same cowardly tactic as with the vampire lord and the Shar priestess and attacked her from a distance before triggering the cut scene. This gave me some room to manoeuvre. I killed two of the persons in the circle hoping to break the blessings she gets from the (very cool!) Bhaal effigy, but that didn’t work. I got her down to 1 HP, but my main character was dead. Luckily, my companions succeeded in killing her. I revived and still had to deal with the remaining persons from the circle. That proved difficult because they turned invisible. A potion remedied that, but not the fact that they could only be harmed by indirect damage. I had used up all my aoe spells and scrolls. Eventually I managed to deal with them by entangling them with some damage and pushing them in the chasm. It was a memorable fight!
Next up I have to get back to the foundry again I guess.