Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General The Improbable Adventures of Corvella Greyrose - PART FOUR UP

I am!

With 1 gp / day supposedly considered a comfortable living, I'd say you're doing much better than a chambermaid.

Considering how much of a role Fog Cloud plays in my wizard's combat tactics, I've been a little disappointed at how ineffective it is at breaking LoS, I kind of want your story to reflect what should happen in the game sometimes.

I love reading these please continue

The Improbable Adventures of Corvella Greyrose: Day Four



(Continued from part three, upthread!)




DAY FOUR:

Another dreamless night, another morning feeling just fine. I still didn't know where I was, but I'd found references to familiar gods and locations in some of the writings in the ruin, so I had a good feeling that this was Faerun. It didn't seem that important, really, knowing exactly where in the Realms I was located. There were mysteries to uncover here, and relics to find! I felt like nothing could stop me now.

I did poke my head back into the dangerous section of the ruin, and found that same group of thugs standing firm in what was apparently their territory. But there was another area to explore, beyond the next set of double doors, and that's where I went this morning. I found more pillars, and a very large and creepy statue that I felt pretty sure was of some old god, but I couldn't remember which one. Several skeletons in ragged, ancient robes littered the floor, and a few more sarcophagi and chests scattered around the area rewarded me with a few minor goodies. I cleaned the area out, and found a ladder in a natural cave section that led up to a trapdoor above. Before looking into that, I decided to take one last look around the previous room.

It was hard to spot, but I managed to detect another hidden button on one of the walls. As I examined it, I felt a deep sense of foreboding. This button was trouble, I was sure. I looked around for traps, but found no sign of any. But there was a hint of malevolent magic about the button that had me concerned. I backed away into a dark corner and tried to use my trusty Mage Hand cantrip to push the button, but to my consternation, the disembodied hand couldn't muster enough force to move the button. Next, I summoned forth my favorite Familiar, a raven spirit I call Nevermore. And guess what? HE couldn't push the button EITHER! Thanks, wizardry. Glad to know that a simple button can foil the arcane powers of the Weave.

Sighing with annoyance, I realized that I was going to have to push that damn button with my own delicate (but strong!) finger. After one last examination of the area for traps, runes, sigils, or glyphs of any kind, I finally took a deep breath and depressed the small, circular bump in the wall. The good news was, it did open a hidden room. The bad news, however, was that it ALSO awakened all of those decrepit skeletons in the room. There were at least five or six of them, and they seemed quite hostile to intruders. I, as charming and lovable as I may be, was an intruder.

I'd recovered my magic and studied my spellbook for a few minutes after calling Nevermore, so now I had my good old reliable Fog Cloud ready in my mind. I had enough energy to cast it twice, if need be. So as I stood there with my metaphorical pants around my ankles, staring down a half-dozen undead archaeologist-slayers, there was only one thing to be done. Calling out the familiar incantation, I produced a beautiful, fluffy cloud of fog in between myself and the skeletal figures. THEN, instead of retreating AWAY from them, into the hidden room I'd just unlocked, I ran toward them, INTO the fog, making a bunch of noise on purpose. I had a plan.

As expected, my fleshless foes took the bait, turning their attention to the cloud of fog and seeking me within. But as they did that, I crept out of the back side of the fog, silent as a cat this time. They couldn't see me past the obstructing cloud, they thought I was still inside, so I was free to sneak right into the hidden room without any of them pursuing me. I felt pretty clever as the mindless undead kept their attention on the fog while I began to loot their inner sanctum with impunity. And this time, I was duly rewarded.

Inside a conveniently-unlocked chest, I found a nice bit of polished agate, AND . . . another magical artifact! It was a heavy, macabre-looking amulet, again pregnant with ancient divine power, in the shape of a skull holding a scroll in its mouth. I'd seen the same symbol elsewhere in this ruin, and I was sure it was the emblem of some obscure deity, presumably the same one depicted in the massive statue in the next room. I could feel the strong magic radiating from this incredible find, and I tucked it away into my Haversack with a huge grin on my face.

There was ALSO a big, fancy sarcophagus in this concealed chamber. I checked it for traps, felt confident that there were none, and tried to push the stone lid aside. But it wouldn't budge, and suddenly I heard a sepulchral voice come from within the sarcophagus itself. It said, "Dost thou seek to rush fate? See to the dead first." Well, I didn't know what that meant, but I was pretty ready to get out of there at this point. I had my prize, I didn't need to mess about with any talking coffins. There was, of course, still the matter of the squad of skeletons between me and freedom.

It wasn't too difficult, not after my harrowing shenanigans of the day before. I snuck back into my fog cloud, making some noise as I left the hidden room so that the skeletal minion currently flailing around inside the fog, looking for me, would instead go investigate where I had been, instead of being where I was now going. It worked as expected, and the rest of the undead stared with deathless intensity at the cloud. Their bony hands weaved arcane patterns in the air, preparing to launch some aggressive magic, so I knew that they were spellcasters. I knew that because I'm a REAL WIZARD. (Quick reminder that that Gale guy, if that was even his REAL name, was a stupid jerk.)

Now I had a problem. I had a LONG way to run to get from the safety of my conjured concealment all the way to one of the exits from the area. I knew that I couldn't run fast enough to get out of the skeletal mages' line of sight before they could blast me with whatever nasty sorcery they had on hand. But then it occurred to me that I didn't NEED to run all the way out of the room. I just needed to run . . . to my next patch of fog! All I had to do was cast a second Fog Cloud spell across the room and dart into it, take a quick breather while the skeletons looked for me in confusion, and then I could sprint the rest of the way to one of the exits with the second cloud covering my retreat. (Would GALE have thought of that plan? Doubtful.)

It went off flawlessly, and moments later, I was back on the riverbank, basking in the sunshine and laughing wildly yet again. Another relic reclaimed! Another brush with death (or a brush with undeath, in this case?), and I remained unscathed. I'm beginning to think that I might be the best archaeologist in the world. Well, besides all the ones who know history, and which god is which, and all that boring stuff. Much better than those dumb tomb-robbers.

I used the cliffside rune next to the big door to the ruin, and appeared back up on top of the hill, right where I'd met Gale. (Where I'd been accosted by him, more like.) To my surprise, he was still hanging around there. I think he was looking a bit forlorn, honestly. I stopped for a moment just to tell him what a great wizard I was, and when he predictably asked me if I wanted to travel with him again, I just laughed at him and walked away. I didn't look back, but in my imagination, he had to wipe away a tear as he watched me leave him in the dust.

Okay, I'm being a bit vindictive, but he did belittle my intelligence and say that I wasn't a real wizard. I am CORVELLA, MISTRESS OF FOG. All who defy me will . . . not be able to see. In a small area. Up to twice. (Okay maybe I need to workshop that a little.)

Anyway, moving on. While I'd been down below, down, down, down by the river, I saw what looked like some promising wreckage up on top of a rocky promontory. I thought there might be some salvage to be had, and it looked like I could find a way to get to that precarious perch via the cliffs above. I was right, and I did find a couple of little trinkets up there, so I felt proud of myself. I also noticed that there were more ruins up here on the heights as well, so I thought I'd better take a closer look. An archaeologist's work is never done.

I quickly discovered that these open-air ruins were inhabited by yet another group of dodgy-looking, well-armed people. They seemed of a kind with the gang I'd played hide-and-seek with down below, so at first I just avoided them. I stalked past them and along the cliff edge, where I eventually found an improbably-placed trapdoor. It was locked, but that was no trouble for me, as I defeated the simple mechanism on my first try. A quick investigation revealed that this was the same trapdoor that I'd previously seen from the other side. I was pleased to check this off my mental list, and now felt like I'd fully explored the interior of the ruin.

But there was also this upper region now, and I wanted to look around in it. Those people were in my way, so I considered how to get rid of them. I eavesdropped on their conversation for a bit (not a rude thing to do when in the service of legitimate archaeological business), and found that they were discussing the crashed tentacle-ship. They seemed concerned about it, so I decided to help fuel their imagination a little more. It was easy enough to convince them that there was a massive invasion force of such horrifying vessels coming to this area, and that was enough to send them scurrying away with no small amount of haste. The upper ruin was mine to explore!

The scoundrels (and I have to call them that, as they were clearly trespassing in ancient ruins without a proper archaeological license . . . which I am sure that I have . . . in my other robe) left so quickly that some of their gear remained behind, which I conscientiously took for safe keeping. And I found ANOTHER door. Into some part of the ruin I hadn't seen yet. Clearly there was only one option before me. Out came the creative entry kit, and click went the lock.

I hardly had a chance to even look around inside, for as soon as I went through the door, some pugnacious human leapt to assault me, brandishing a shortsword and yelling something about killing me. I was too quick for him, though, and ducked right back through the door before he could react. I easily lost him in the stonework above, and he presumably went back to guarding that entrance. I was pretty sure I could get past him, if I had my magic at the ready. But I was tapped on arcane power, so I resolved to come back (again!) after another night's sleep.

Back in camp, setting pen to this journal yet again. It feels comforting. I'm developing a routine. Each day my resources grow, and so, too, does my confidence. I still don't remember much, but this new adventure I am on is not disagreeable at all. Maybe eventually I'll make it home to Baldur's Gate, and maybe I'll even recover the rest of my memories. Maybe I have family or friends who miss me, maybe they will throw lavish parties when I return at long last. Maybe my journals will be published, and I will be as famous as Volothamp Geddarm one day. But ALL of that can wait. For now, I have treasure to hunt and villains to outwit.

Time for inventory yet again:

- 1 sweat-stained robe (need to wash this in the river tomorrow), 1 suit of fancy armor languishing in the magic chest, 2 pairs of boots.
- 3 Creative Entry Accoutrements.
- 5 daggers, 3 quarterstaves, 3 shortbows, 2 longswords, 1 handaxe, 1 halberd, 2 scimitars, 1 leather helm, 1 shield, and 1 set of crusty old ring mail armor (who would even wear this stuff?).
- 3 backpacks and 3 collapsible-yet-sturdy crates.
- 11 sketchy bulb-things: 3 "Caustic", 5 "Void", and 3 "Spiked".
- 13 Potions of Healing, 2 Potions of Speed, 1 Potion of Poison Resistance, and 2 Potions of Fire Resistance.
- 2 bottles of water, 3 apples, 1 loaf of sourdough bread, 1 wheel of cheese, and 1 zucchini (quite crisp, too).
- 2 Scrolls of Revivify, 1 Scroll of False Life, 1 Scroll of Inflict Wounds, 1 Scroll of Mage Armor, and 1 Scroll of Fire Bolt, 2 Scrolls of Protection From Evil and Good, 1 Scroll of Guiding Bolt, 1 Scroll of Ray of Enfeeblement, 3 Scrolls of Silence (these might be very useful!), and 1 Scroll of Burning Hands.
- 1 copper ring, 1 onyx ring, 1 burnished necklace, 1 malachite gem, 1 onyx gem, 1 mega-ruby, 2 somewhat drab clamshells, 1 ruby ring, 1 bronze ring with a nice purple gem, 1 polished agate stone, 1 glass chalice, 2 pewter cups, and 1 lovely silver necklace (it cleaned up nicely).
- 1 Alchemist's Fire, 3 Grease Bottles, and 1 Vial of Poison.
- 3 bundles of Mugwort, 1 of Mergrass, and 1 of Autumncrocus.
- 1 Soul Coin.
- 1 astounding journal!
- 4 quills, 2 ink pots, 2 candles, and 1 torch.
- 1 MISTMANCER'S TOME OF ARCANE CHICANERY, known to the uninitiated as a "spellbook".
- 1 Artifact: The Watcher's Guide (placed into the magic chest for safe keeping)
- 1 Artifact: an as-of-yet unidentified skull amulet that radiates necromantic energies
- 191 gold coins (a nice jump up from yesterday).





OOC Part:


DEATH COUNT: 2

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get that amulet and get out without fighting the skeletons, but once again, it seems that Fog Cloud is the greatest spell of all time. At least, until I manage to get Invisibility.

Leveling up is going to be very hard without killing anything, though. I'm still 100 XP away from level 2, and it only comes in tiny dribs and drabs so far.

I'm starting to accumulate a lot of sellable loot, I need to get to a merchant soon.


Thanks everyone fort your kind comments, by the way!




Stay tuned for the next part, coming further down the thread soon!

I'd replace Gale with the archaeologist Corvella. All chests/barrels/bodies/whatever looted without any effort from my side <3
You pamper us, I am waiting for a new chapter in the adventures of Mistress of Fog.

iirc around the goblin camp there are some good exploration XP bonuses including a 90XP one. - you might be able to scrape as much as 200XP there just from wandering around?

Loving the new entries.

Amaaazing! Keep it up! I read this while having lunch and it was absolutely amazing!

I love your way of describing both Astarion and Gale. And the "dull" human archer in the crypts. XD I am also impressed with you making it this far with only two deaths.

I absolutely love this OP. They way you're taking your screen shots and RPing your char. This post deserves to be edited when finished or allow you to move all your updates to the top. This really needs some love and spotlight.

I know! Fire's a Slacker..LoL.

My favorite part: "I backed away into a dark corner and tried to use my trusty Mage Hand cantrip to push the button, but to my consternation, the disembodied hand couldn't muster enough force to move the button. Next, I summoned forth my favorite Familiar, a raven spirit I call Nevermore. And guess what? HE couldn't push the button EITHER! Thanks, wizardry. "

You'd think both of those would work...

Lovely! I like to attempt non-combat characters in games where possible, so I will follow Corvella's exploits with interest. In the full game, a few rogue levels may work wonders for her archaeological prowess...

[Edit] Except, of course, exp is heavily weighted towards killing things in newer DnD versions, making 10th Level Archaeologist particularly difficult to achieve...

But as another player noted in an awesome thread, you get the same XP if you just knock them out...

This is my favorite return-to thread! I am looking forward to reading more.

I'm always a fan of alliteration. I guess Corvella is kind of a...

profligate pilferer predatorily picking pockets,
personally pursuing purely purloined profits.

Best of luck to you in the game playing this way. I love the personal challenges. I personally did the full on evil mode.... its a nice drow on drow movie as a reward if you play a drow female

I am thinking of a Full thief mode sending all teammates to camp then sneaking around stealing everything in sight then go back and play the game as uncle money bags

"Corvella, Mistress of Fog"? ... yes, yes! Leira is pleased with this. The fog obscures the senses which are too easily manipulated by illusion. The fog thus exposes the truth that is found in the absence of sight.

The Improbable Adventures of Corvella Greyrose: Day Five


(continued from part four, upthread!)




DAY FIVE:

Strange dreams returned last night, along with the piercing headache I'd been suffering when I first awoke in the nautiloid. In my nocturnal journeys, I'd seen myself commanding lesser creatures and watching them bow to my will. I'd seen an indistinct yet compelling figure calling to me, and then she (I think?) embraced me, and I felt a sense of incredible comfort. I'd seen myself descend beneath the earth, down deep into places of oppressive darkness, where a most improbable tower stood sentinel over an inky-black lake. That place awaited me, and within I would find riches and arcane power.

When I finally rose from my restless slumber, I knew that these were no mere dreams. Something has happened to me aboard that ship of horrors, and now I am connected to . . . I don't know. A being? A force? Some collective mind? In the form of dreams, it is trying to communicate with me, whatever IT is. I need to seek out the source of this feeling, I require answers and, hopefully, an end to this wretched headache.

The little ruin I'd been focused on for the last couple of days was forgotten. I had to find grander things, I had to delve deeper. Much deeper. Perhaps I'll return to this ruin later, but for now it seems of little importance. If I close my eyes and press my fingertips to my temples, I can almost hear a voice, whispering ever-so-faint indecipherabilities. And it comes from the West. So that is the direction that I resolved to wander.







Heading further up the hill away from the river, looking for a good path to take me beyond the wreckage of the ghaik vessel, I came upon two curious-looking beings with red skin and devilish horns. They looked like fiends of some sort, but were wearing normal clothes and had humanish faces. There was a tickle in the back of my mind, as though I should have known what their species was called, but that knowledge is lost like most of my memories. The pair was talking about what they were going to do with some creature they'd apparently caught in a cage. They hadn't noticed me, as I was moving quietly and sticking to the shadows. I was tempted to take a peek in their pockets, just to make sure they weren't carrying anything harmful, but it seemed a bit dangerous, so I resisted the urge.

I was quite intrigued though, so I threw caution to the wind, incanted a quick Friends cantrip upon the closer of the two, and approached openly. As I got closer, I was surprised to see that in the hanging cage before us was Mean Green herself! The angry woman from the ship who had so kindly donated her fancy armor and sword to my collection looked no less furious now, and as she stared daggers at me, my headache spiked for a moment and I heard the green woman's voice in my mind, ordering me (quite impolitely) to get rid of the two devil people.

Look, journal, I don't like to think of myself as a "liar" exactly. I just present surgical pieces of the truth, or some POSSIBLE truth, in a way that causes people to think what they SHOULD think. What would be best for EVERYONE, for them to think. And often they have these inconvenient IDEAS which prevent them from thinking what I (and the world, including all of the little children) need them to. I just FREE them from those unfortunate ideas. For the children. That's all. Now that THAT'S clear, we can move on with the story.

So, summoning forth my most dramatic tone, I told the fiend-man that the entity in the cage was exceptionally dangerous, but that I knew how to handle it. For their safety, they should get out of there and leave it to me. Aided by my cantrip, my words found purchase in their minds, and they made ready to depart. They also told me that they had some kind of camp further up the hill, and that someone named "Nettie" was a healer there, if I needed help. As they left, somehow the female devilkin (I guess?) managed to misplace a scroll case with three scrolls in it. Wouldn't you know, by the time I noticed that it had fallen into my own Haversack, they were already too far away to catch.

Then they were gone, leaving me alone with an unpleasant lady in a cage. (She looked pretty pathetic in there, without her armor, and I did feel bad for her, despite her vituperative demeanor.) She demanded I free her, to which I quite reasonably pointed out that saying "please" would be good manners in this instance, to which she responded with what I can only assume is a dire curse in her native tongue. She was glaring at me hard enough to crush rocks, and my headache was only intensifying the longer I was near her, so I decided that the best thing for everyone involved was for me to leave quickly, and allow Mean Green some more time in contemplative retreat above the ground.

Moving on, I began to hear shouting voices up ahead. Before me rose a towering natural stone wall, and set into it was a huge wooden gate, covered in vibrant green vines. Some sort of ruckus was taking place at the gate, so I scampered up a nearby outcropping of rocks to hide and watch what was going on. Apparently a group of human adventurers were being pursued by a band of goblins, and wished very sincerely to be let past the gate. A few more of those horned fiendish-looking people stood atop the wall, and one of them (I think I heard him called "Zevlor"?) seemed very displeased by the whole situation. Then a large band of goblins, along with a massive wolf-like creature, came running in from the west, launching arrows at the defenders of the wall. The devil people DID try to open the gate for the humans, but it seemed to be an impossible task while simultaneously having arrows enter their bodies.

And so the battle was joined. I thought that I was in a safe place atop my little hill, but it turns out that I was wrong about that. Almost fatally wrong, as one of the bow-wielding little gobbos spotted me and sent an arrow flying in my direction. A vague memory surfaced of learning about a spell in school that could instantly erect a mystical shield in front of you, but I'd chosen to study something else instead. I really wish I'd known that Shield spell, let me tell you. Have you ever been shot with an arrow? (I'm asking a journal if it's ever . . . nevermind.) Well, it REALLY hurts!

The jagged, undoubtedly filthy, little thing jammed itself into my upper chest, punching through my thin robe with ease. I nearly passed out at that moment from the pain and shock of it, and I think it only missed my heart by an inch. I very well could have died from that injury, and don't know how I managed to survive, but needless to say, I screamed through the pain and ran as fast as I could away from there. No stopping to cast spells, just blind, frenzied retreat, until I found a better place to hide, safely out of bowshot range. I could still hear the battle raging behind me, the vicious yells of the goblins, the howl of their monstrous canine, the desperate shouts of the humans. I cared about none of it. I was on death's door myself, and all I knew in the world was that I needed to get away, get away, get away.

When I finally reached a safe distance from the site of the combat, I set to tending my wound as best I could. Pulling the arrow out was as awful a thing as I can remember having experienced in my life, and then there was a lot of blood. I cleaned the hole in my body, and tore off a bit of one of my sleeves to bandage it. Once that was done, I realized I was starving, so I wolfed down an entire loaf of somewhat stale, crusty sourdough bread. Eating made me feel so much better! It was like I could feel the energy from the food coursing through my body. I'm not going to say that eating food healed my wound, that would be ridiculous. But it did make me feel a lot more ready to keep moving.

Wanting to get to a safe place where none of the goblins would find me, and not yet wanting to travel down the path they'd come from (in case more were on the way), I climbed up a steep hillside overlooking the trail. Every foot of altitude gained was agony, due to my injury, but the energy from the bread really seemed to be keeping me going nicely. At the top, I found a wooden ladder, leading up to some kind of platform of logs above. I wasn't about to climb up into some kind of trap, so I called forth Nevermore and sent him up to scout things out. He found no living creatures up on the plateau, merely an abandoned camp of some kind with what seemed to be a watch post constructed atop the hill. So it seemed to be safe.

I climbed up, slowly and carefully, and looked around the area. I found another, higher platform, but there was nothing on it. Between the two platforms was a long-cold fire pit, and enough wood around to build and light a new campfire. Splayed out on the ground next to the pit was a sun-bleached human skeleton, and inside its ribcage I saw something special. The tingle of magic tickled my fingers as I picked up another amulet, grimy and rusted, but definitely enchanted. I could make out a symbol on the necklace, that of a moon and harp. I'd seen this symbol before, in those papers that spoke of a group called Harpers that I'd found in a hidden cache. This must have been one of their camps, whoever they were. What an unlikely place to find another artifact! Even half-dead and with a splitting headache, my keen archaeological senses continue to serve me well. No object of magic can hide from Corvella the Pincushion!

I also noticed a suspicious pile of rocks a short distance away from the fire pit. Looking within, I found a hollow filled with large, disgusting spiders, which I was immediately revolted by. But there was ALSO a bag in there, and something gleamed from within its partially-open mouth. I really didn't want to touch those spiders, or Sehanine forbid, get any of them ON me. But come on, journal. Do you think I could have POSSIBLY left that bag there, untouched? Obviously not.






After studying the foul little beasts for a bit, I took a deep breath, held it, and darted my hand in between approximately 10,000 twitching legs to grab the pouch and tear it free, all without getting so much as a single spider on me in the process. This is master-level archaeology, here. Even the spiders looked impressed. (All right, I could have been imagining that.) Inside my newest acquisition was some gold coins, and a very strange (and heavy) egg. I decided to hold onto it and study it further, later on. Maybe that was a bad idea, maybe something horrific is going to hatch out of it one unexpected day and eat my face off, but my curiosity outweighs my sense of self-preservation sometimes. Well, a lot of the time. Okay, virtually all the time.

I was feeling pretty tired and miserable by this point. The pain radiating from my chest wound seemed to be having an ever-escalating war with the pain throbbing in my head, to determine which of them would torment me more. All of that hard running and climbing had really drained me as well. The thought of traveling back to the nearest rune circle to get to my regular camp was unpleasant enough to bring tears to my eyes, in my current state. So I decided just to use this little abandoned camp for the night, and hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.

Since I'm not at my normal camp, and I'm in a lot of pain, I'm not going to bother with inventory tonight. I'm just going to curl up into a little ball on top of this barren hill and try to sleep. Tomorrow will be better. Something good is waiting for me. It has to be.




OOC Part:

DEATH COUNT: 2

Now, once again, with pictures!

That goblin shot poor Corvella down to ONE hit point. Definitely could have been a death, there. I guess I wasn't cautious enough.

I'm completely bypassing the Grove for now, I want to get into the Underdark as quickly as possible. Hopefully next day I at least get to the goblin vendor at the camp.

The way I do this, by the way, is I play a little bit, then write, then play a little bit more, then write, until I either have a good in-game reason to camp, or I feel like the writing has reached a good length and I don't want it to get too long.



Stay tuned for the next part, coming further down the thread soon!

It seems I can no longer edit the original post or the title of the thread. So just check back in from time to time and scroll to the end to see if I've posted a new part.

vometia, if you happen to still be reading this thread, and want to change the FOUR in the title to FIVE, that would be super cool...

Edit: Better yet would be to just remove the portion of the title about which part was up entirely.

Thanks a lot, glad you like it. More entries are coming for sure.

"I decided that the best thing for everyone involved was for me to leave quickly, and allow Mean Green some more time in contemplative retreat above the ground."
Awesome.