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Chapter 1
When the video sequence finishes, you will find yourself south from there. You will meet Imoen, a Human Thief, who will ask to join you. Unless you are a thief you will probably need her all the way along, mainly for their useful abilities (stealth/remove traps). Before leaving Candlekeep Gorion had told you about Khalid and Jaheira, at the Friendly Arm Inn. We will be heading for the FAI, exploring the areas we are passing from. If you try to go back to Candlekeep the guard wil tell you that you need a book of more than 10,000 GP in value, so forget Candlekeep until Chapter 5, when you will be given one.
Go north, where all the fighting took place last night. Take and read the letter Gorion has. Also take all the weapons and armor you will find there. Then go east. At the first road turning you will find Monatron (Neutral Evil Fighter/Thief) and Xzar (Chaotic Evil Necromancer). They will tell you that they have to go to Nashkel. Tell them that you have something else to do first. I took them at the team, because a mage is needed and a second fighter would be good at fighting all the random encounters. Now if you explore the whole area you will find a madman trying to kill himself (you will get no XP for preventing that) and many random encounters who are not a threat, so the tougher ones only will be mentioned.
At the next area, you will be meet an old man. Trust him, since he is "E" (Elminister) at Gorion's letter. At the NW corner you will find a Ring of Protection +1 inside a rock. At the road north, you will find Aoln and at the southern road you will find Andout and the remains of an old camp, probably striken by the bandits. BTW, if you kill any bandit keep his scalp since you will find officer Vai at Jovial Juggler in Beregost buying them for a very good price. A good tactic to fight the random encounters is to keep the archers and the mages away and fight with your warrior. That way all the attack will be focused on him, while an archer deals damage. Later on you can try other things (ie. find the enemies with thief's ability hide in shadows, then cast a fireball or other mass damage spells and after that have the thief backstab someone and run while the fighters fight to protect him) Also don't waste the few spells you know on any random encounter. Leave this area and head North to Friendly Arm Inn.
The Friendly Arm Inn
If you haven't installed any patch you can go to the south and find under a tree (see image) the Ring of Wizardry which doubles all your level 1 spells anf costs around 9500 GP (but don't sell it!).
If otherwise, go in FAI and prepare for your first difficult battle - difficult if you only don't know what to do. At the way up the Inn a Bounty Hunter will be waiting for you. Quick-Save before playing. Try to fight him. See that if he is hit when casting a spell the spell is disrupted. Also note that the guards come to your aid, but after some time. Load the saved game (BTW, they have a key for quicksave, why quickload is only at TOSC?) Then be prapared. Place your archer(s) at a good position and wait for him. Since you need to interupt him while casting a spell you need small speed factors for the waepons (speed factor is how fast they hit) so read pages 78-79 of the manual (Improving Odds.. and Missile weapons...) and see the tables at page 142. Take every item he carries, read the bounty letter (you head costs 200 GP) and try to write the magic scrolls at the spellbook (this way you can learn them) but save before doing so, since if you fail, the spell is lost.
Enter the Inn and talk to Khalid (Neutral Good Fighter) and Jaheira (True Neutral Fighter/Druid). Now you can have a full team, but my personal choice was not to take them at the team since none of them is realy good and they waste the XP (since the'll get some part of the total XP).You can equip Jaheira (if you take her) and Xzar with slings and bullets from Bentley Mirrorshade at the bar. From here on when an NPC is mentioned you will have to choose to keep him/her or not - remember reputation and alignment. After taking a healing potion, go to the first floor. You will meet Unshey, who will tell you about an Ogre who likes girdles (!) and will ask you to bring his own girdle back. Also there will be some chests which you must try to open (here and everywhere at the Sword Coast), although most of them are pretty difficult for your level. Then go to the second floor and talk to Landrin. He will ask you to kill the spiders from his house at Beregost and bring back his old boots and wine. Then exit the inn and go to the Temple of the Wisdom to find Gellana Mirrorshade, who cen heal or even raise a dead character.
At the house west from the gates you will find Joia who will ask you to bring back her Flamedance Ring. Go to the north part of the map and kill the attacking hobgoblins. One of them will carry the ring. Sell the loot and return the ring to Joia to get 400 XP, 300 GP and +1 reputation point.
Exit the area and go south. There, at the NE corner of the map you will find the ogre with the girdles. use your thief at "stealth" mode to scout the area ahead and equip all the members of your team with ranged weapons. Then encircle him and attack him by all sides. When he runs for somebody, just move the specific character away. Then he will go for another one. Do the same etc. So you will kill him without even a wound. Ogres are very strong (STR 18/00) a hit may cost a charater's life since you are low at hit points. Also instead of firing arrows you can try to cast spells wit your mages and/or use wands as well. You will get 270 XP and two unidentified girdles. DO NOT PUT THEM ON! In order to be identified they require a spell or a high legend-lore ability, which is one of the "specials" of a Bard. The simpler girdle is a Girdle of Piercing which grants a -3 at piercing shots which I belive is not worth the 70 GP and 800 XP you get as a reward if you give it back. The other Girdle is cursed so throw it away (or sell it for 1 GP). Exit the area and go to Beregost.
Beregost
Enter every single house in Beregost and take everything you find (remember to save before doing anything illegal). You will learn from the man who will welcome you about the inns and shops of the town and about Thunder Hammer Smithy, from whom you will buy some of the best equipment in the game.
At the center of the town you will learn about Bassilus and the reward for his head (5000 GP). If you talk to Garrick just outside Burning Wizard, he will ask you to help Silke Rosena. Agree and follow him outside the Red Sheaf. Quick-save. Talk to Silke and the ruffians will appear who are threatening her. Obviously, this is not so. Then she will attack. Notice that she casts some deadly spells (such as lightning bolt) after a while, so you must kill her fast. Place the hand-to-hand fighters near her and have the archers encircle her. You will easily (perhaps with one reload) kill her and take 900 XP, 400 GP and a Quarter Staff +1. At that point I had the first level progression, so save before that and try to get many hit points.
Talk to Garrick (Chaotic Neutral Bard). He will ask you to follow you. I personally removed Xzar and Montaron since they were evil. Xzar and Montaron are a group. The only way to split them is to let one of them die, so I just discarded both. I took a bard because I dual-classed Imoen as a specialist mage at level 3 and decided to let the bard in because he can cast the spells she couldn't cast as a specialist and because of his high lore ability. Anyway, talk the man and he will thank you and give you a Potion of Defence (also if you have high pickpockets skill you can take one potion from everyone plus the one you normally take).
Enter Red Sheaf, where another bounty hunter, Karlat. You will get 270 XP when killing him and some armour and weapons. Your had's price has reached 350 GP! Inside, you will meet a halfling, Perdue. Tell him "A dog's head?", "Oh, a gnoll.", Never liked them..." and "You got a deal". You will have to take his sword from some gnolls West of Beregost, at High Hedge. At the first floor you will meet Raleo Windspear, from whom you will learn about Ulcaster, for the disappearing of Anne's wife and some well-known shops in Beregost.
After buying everything you need from Thunder Hammer (east of Red Sheaf), head to the southern part of the town, at Jovial Juggler. Just left of that is the house that Landrin had asked you to clear. Don't enter if you don't have an antidote, since the spiders are venomous. Use all spells you have and finally after a fair battle you will get 270 XP for each one and take a Spider's heart, the worn out boots and the wine. If you are just injured and not dead or poisoned continue. Otherwise go to Beregost's Temple (East of Beregost) and heal yourself. Enter Jovial Juggler. Talk to Bjorin, who will ask you to kill some Half-Ogres SSW of Beregost. Then talk to Gurke who will tell you about a cloak he lost at Cloakwood by some Tasloi.
Then head to Fedelpost's Inn, at the west edge of the city. Inside you will find Marl. Tell him 1,1,3,3,1 and calm him (and take 900 XP) The innkeeper has some rare items for sell. Mark the place and return when you have more money. Also try to pickpocket Algeron at the first floor. He has a cloah which grants a +2 at charisma and can be used to charm others. Then go to the NE part of the city, into the big house. There you will find at the second floor a Wand of Lightning (it has about 4 charges, so use it wisely). Also take a book named "History of the Fateful Coin" and give it to Elvenhair. His house is west from Fedelpost's Inn (if I recall correctly) and you will take a book named "History of the Dead Three", 300 XP and +1 at reputation. In Burning Wizard you will find Zhurlong who will tell you about his boots which were stolen by some hobgoblins South of here. The strange thing is with him that you can kill him without any punishment (ie. guards or reputation drop). Also you can take Khagain (Lawful Evil Fighter), a dwarf, in your party provided that you find the caravan in two weeks time (it's the one North from Beregost).
Now you can raturn to FAI and give back the boots, wine and spider (total 800 XP and 295 GP). Then return to Beregost and head south to Nashkel. At some point on the main road, you will find two Ogrillions and a body. You will kill them and take a scroll from lady Mirianne's husband. Then at the middle of the road turn west until you find a cave. There you will be attacked by Hobgoblins. One of them carries the Boots of Stealth (Zhurlong's boots). Don't give them back (100 GP and 300 XP don't worth it). They raise your thief's hide in shadows skill by 35%. The cave has a few healing potions and money. Return the scroll to Myrianne and you will take a Ring of Protection +1 and 300 XP.
To the way to Nashkel you will find a Flaming Fist soldier accusing you that you are a bandit. Say that you help Sword Coast to get rid of them. At the next area south you will meet a pack of Hobgoblins. Kill them and enter Nashkel
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