Against everyone's wishes, we were NOT going to rest just yet. Instead, Montaron purchased a sling and four stacks of bullets.
We had the cover of night and had three thieves in the party. Little reason to waste the darkness.
Outside of the main keep in a house to the south, I remembered there was a woman named Joia wanted her ring back from a band of hobgoblins skulking outside. So we paid her a visit first.
A woman was indeed waiting in the house to the south, just as I remembered it.
"Well met!" I said, announcing our presence. I stood as tall as I could with my chest puffed out. "We are adventurer's looking for rights to be wronged! Mayhaps you could point
My party members gave me a funny look. Joia, on her part, looked down at me with a complicated expression. Shaking her head, she said, "Okay, I'm not that desperate."
…eh?
She sighed. "If you meet real warriors in the inn, please let them know I need someone to reclaim my flamedance ring from the hobgoblins within sight of this very inn's walls."
Montaron and Xzar burst out laughing, pointing at me and patting my back. Even Imoen forced back a chuckle at my expense.
Somewhere in the depths of my heart, something cracked.
I slammed the door behind us. "We're going to get that flamedance ring if it's the last thing I do. And I'm gonna wave it in that woman's face!"
"Uh, mayhaps you are taking this too personally, Sonny?" Imoen said, hesitant.
"There's no TOO personally! This is VERY personal!"
Montaron and Xzar were both grinning like buffoons. Bah! I'll show them all.
Thankfully it was still night time. We spotted two hobgoblins ahead, and planned our strategy.
Two hobgoblins at first meant two backstabs. Montaron took out his target, but unfortunately, I whiffed my strike. I had to beat a quick retreat while the rest of the Imoen and Montaron very slowly pelted the remaining one to death. Not a good start for our first skirmish together.
Montaron and Xzar looked at me, smug.
"So far, we're not impressed, recruit," Xzar said.
This would be a LOT easier if you knew the Sleep spell, Xzar. We were conserving his spells for when there were more targets though. Still, that fight was a lot more troublesome than I expected. I don't remember hobgoblins ever being an issue, honestly. Not compared to the trauma Tarnesh used to inflict on my soul all those years ago. Maybe I was too used to having a proper main character instead of a bloody halfling.
Time for some math. An explanation of ADnD rules is in order. ADnD uses Thac0, which stands for "To-hit armor class 0". Thac0 starts at 20, and this number reduces as you get more bonuses to Thac0 (+2 bonuses to Thac0 means Thac0 will be 20-2=18). The lower the Thac0 the better.
Armor Class (AC) starts at 10, and also reduces as you get bonuses to AC. The lower the AC the better. Enemies have their own AC.
To know if you hit something in ADnD, you roll a d20, add the target's AC score, then check if you hit it with your Thac0. Confusing, yes, but let me illustrate.
-A hobgoblin has 5 AC.
-I have a Thac0 of 18 with my quarterstaff.
-I roll a d20 to see if I hit the hobgoblin, then add the hobgoblin's AC to the result. If the total result is equal to my Thac0 18 or higher, my attack hits. Egs. I rolls a 13. 13+5=18 which is equal to my Thac0, just enough to hit. Needing to roll at least a 13 on a 30-sided dice means I only have a 40% of hitting! With a backstab or while I'm invisible, 60% hit chance. Only 60% to hit in the most advantageous conditions!
Murgh, it was no wonder everyone was missing the Hobgoblins so much. Welcome to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, where level 1 'heroes' are zeroes who are expected to miss more often than hit. If Baldur's Gate 1 had been turn-based like Baldur's Gate 3, combat would have been super tedious because most turns will be spent missing attacks!
The point I am trying to make by spelling these calculations out in detail is that combat for low level characters is perilous, even against what would normally be considered throwaway monsters in most games. This is part of the reason why Baldur's Gate is considered so difficult in the early game.
The next battle had 3 hobgoblins, including the one with Joia's ring. Two hobgoblins had already been a messy affair for a party that wasn't supported by a proper main character, what more three? So this was where Xzar broke out his spell, all two of them. Funnily enough he could take out a single hobgoblin with two casts of Minor Drain, then joined the battle with the +1 dagger while protected with his large health buffer. That was enough to clinch the fight.
We got a bit lucky on the last group two, backstabs from both me and Montaron finally hitting home. We took out a group of two hobgoblins, then a group of 3 more, and lastly a group of 2. As far as achievements go it was barely anything, yet we were fighting tooth and nail for every victory.
Joia was surprised to see me holding out her ring, to say the least. She looked at it, then at me, then at the ring again.
"You, you really took out the hobgoblins?"
I just grinned back, for now.
She then eyed my party. "It was your party, wasn't it? The other halfling certainly looks like the real deal."
"Yer got that right, missy!" Montaron said, puffing out his chest in pride.
And I don't look like the real deal?!? "I had plenty of kills myself," I said dryly.
Xzar stuck a finger in his nose, and flicked out some snot. "Ehhhh, he helped."
I stared daggers right at Xzar, who ignored me. Then I turned back to Joia and flipped the ring about in my palm. "Well, if you don't want your ring back because you're too proud to admit your mistake, I guess I'll be keeping this then."
"Ah, forgive me, noble halfling!" Joia said quickly. "I had not known your small stature hides a potent warrior within!"
She reached for the ring, but I held it back and gave her an expectant look.
"Uh… As penance I'll let everyone how good you were to me even though I was so dismissive of you," Joia said sighing, her head held low.
I nodded, satisfied, and passed the ring back to her. Montaron and Xzar clicked their tongues, but said nothing else.
A quick check of the valuables in the Friendly Arm Inn yielded some nice stuff. We collected some quests from Unshey and Landrin, got mistaken as the cleaning services by one nobleman (who gave us a pair of golden pantaloons) and mistaken as the serving staff by a grumpy half-orc in the inn (who gave us an earful).
Yes, I know that half-orc guy is part of the new Enhanced Edition content and his name is Dorn. I didn't have that much experience with him. So I wasn't sure what I to expect from that quick exchange.
From the valuables scavenged from upstairs together with the stuff from the hobgoblins, our gold now totalled 3381. Very nice. Some of the loot from the hobgoblins was randomised by this point, so there was some variance.
The Plate Mail in Bentley's inventory was pretty tempting right now at 762 gold. The only problem was, who would wear it? I kept taking my splint mail off for backstabs. Hobgoblins would need a natural 20 to hit me in my Splint Mail anyway so the plate armour seemed superfluous right now. What I really wanted was some throwing knives for Xzar, but Bentley didn't stock any. In the end, I decided to save my money for Beregost and High Hedge. The party rested the night.
The next day, we discussed our next target on the way down to Beregost. Unshey had lost a girdle of piercing to a rogue ogre just south of the Friendly Arm Inn. This was the belt I was considering getting earlier. The ogre with a belt fetish was no laughing matter for our low-level party. A single hit from the ogre's Morningstar could spell our doom.
The party looked at me with weary eyes as I talked about the ogre and the belt.
"We're not really going to kill this really dangerous monster for Unshey and give back the Girdle of Piercing, are we?" Imoen asked.
Right, that's what they're worried about. "Nope. A simple ring is one thing. A Girdle of Piercing? That's way too precious to pass up unless Unshey can offer real compensation. I think I've had enough of being a goodie goodie for the time being."
As one, Imoen, Xzar and Montaron did a little fist pump. I really need to separate Imoen from these two as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, by the time we made it back to the Coastway it was still daylight. So sneaking around and backstabbing enemies wasn't really an option. I, Imoen and Montaron depended on volley fire to take out a diseased gibberling, a nasty fuzzy thing which was vaguely humanoid, thankfully with not too much trouble. Then another diseased gibberling. Then a wolf, which was significantly faster and tougher but went down to volley fire all the same.
We were expecting to encounter a fourth, but spotted an ogre in the distance.
I'll be honest. I had killed plenty of ogres in the game. But just looking at it in person was something else. How could any human work up courage to challenge something that big and mighty, much less a halfling?
"This seems like a bad idea. A most terrible idea," Imoen said.
Xzar, even Montaron didn't dare to boast about downing the monster easily. One hit, and that's all she wrote!
We pulled back a moment and I spoke to the team. "That thing is bad news. I'm not gonna lie. This is why it was important to go on a mission to gain field experience later. But that Girdle of Piercing? It's critical. Not optional. We can kill this ogre without getting hurt, and it's going to be hectic. But it's going to be worth it. Don't even think of solving the iron crisis if we can't handle this obstacle."
The strategy was actually rather simple. The ogre carried a morning-star, and that's it. No throwing or ranged weapons. So whoever the ogre is chasing after runs, and whoever it is not chasing after shoots at it.
"So, who's going to be doing the running?" Montaron, "Cos I ain't doing it."
"The sturdiest and most confident of taking a hit, of course," I said without thinking.
…crap.
"I will smash you! Smash you to goo!" the ogre screamed, waving it's morning-star wildly as at ran.
"Kill it! Kill it! Kill it now! Hurry!" I screamed while running as fast as my tiny little legs could carry me.
"Stop running out of range then!" Imoen shot back. "Try running circles around the tree!"
Xzar was busy chanting his spells. How many times had he hit the ogre with Minor Drain now?
"Keep running lad, yer got em on the ropes!" Montaron shouted cheerfully as he twirled his sling.
"Just hit the damned thing already! Stop missing, damn you!" I cried. "Eeeeeyaaaaagh!"
A dozen arrows and bullets later, we finally downed the giant without shedding blood. I'd say without shedding sweat or tears, but that wasn't true.
"Yer know what? I like this strategy," Montaron mused as I was keeled over catching my breath. "Very efficient. We should do it again."
Gasping for air, I settled with giving him my middle finger.
The thing was, the ogre dropped TWO belts.
"Which one is the Girdle of Piercing," Imoen asked the obvious question. "And what's the other?"
Crud. I know how the actual Girdle of Piercing icon looks in-game. But in person, it wasn't so obvious.
I looked to Xzar. "Can you tell it apart?"
Xzar shrugged, nonchalant. To be fair, even a bard shouldn't be able to identify it with a Lore check so easily.
Tch. Maybe we had to wait 'til we got to town. Pay someone real money to identify it.
"What's the problem?" Montaron asked. "We just wear them both. Problem solved. Efficient."
There was a twinkle in Xzar's eye, but he kept silent.
What was that? Ahhhh, I get it.
I made a show of rubbing my chin in thought. "Xzar is already using the magical dagger and ring of wizardry. I'm using the ring of protection. Imoen is wearing Gorion's belt. Who should get the next item?"
"Are ye daft! You forgot I existed or somethin'?" Montaron protested. "It's my turn!"
I cocked my head to the side. "Is it though? The Girdle of Piercing is pretty important for protecting one from ranged fire and spears and the like. Maybe the person who is willing to do all the running around or stand in the front lines should get it."
My gaze wandered over to the two belts placed in the middle of the group. My hand reached out…
…but Montaron snatched both belts up quickly. "They be mine! All mine! I'll brook no argument!"
"Both of them? Really-"
"YES! BOTH!" Montaron put on the first one, and Montaron became Montareene.