The final installment of the Bhaalspawn Saga, is Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, expansion to Shadows of Amn. It added a few new spells, increased the level cap, and quite a few new areas, not to mention wrapped the story up. There are new monsters, new weapons and armor, and Watcher's Keep, the gigantic tower full of goodies and danger. Let's dig in, shall we?
Beware, for I will be spoiling most of the story in the next few paragraphs.
We begin where we left off. After spending a few days with the Elves, they kick you out. You hear many stories about the death and destruction brought on by the Bhaalspawn. You end up in a grove with a bunch of odd, stone statues that say some sort of prophesy or some other nonsense. You meet up with Illasera, who claims she's also a Bhaalspawn. Guess what? She's also a pushover. How she became important, is beyond me. You end up in what looks like Hell, but it turns out, that it's just a pocket-plane made by Bhaal.
You meet a Solar, which is a servant of Ao, the head-honcho of the gods (Feel free to correct me if I got that wrong). It brings an old friend...Sarevok! The loser wants you to revive him. When you do so, he tells you that you need to face some challenge. When you make it over to the challenge place, you fight a bunch of weak NPCs and eventually some rather mediocre NPCs. Once that's done, (or maybe it's before that) Sarevok asks you to let him in your party. It's up to choice whether you do so or not, but he's really damn powerful, so it's a good idea.
You eventually make it to Saradush, scenic capital of the Tethyr reg...what the hell happened here? It turns out, it's under siege by an army of massive proportions (almost literally). You meet a woman named Melissan, who apparently knows your name. Weird. Any who, she tells you not to, under any circumstance kill the Half-Orc Gromnir who runs the place. What does that mean, kiddies? That's right! You put his head on a pike and dance around his corpse. Melissan isn't very happy with you, but she says it might have been for the good. By the way, he was a Bhaalspawn too. Of course he was.
Apparently, no one can leave the town because of the siege that still rages. Fortunately for you, you have a Pocket Plane! You bail from Saradush and head to the North Forest to find the secret of Yaga-Shura, the Fire-Giant Bhaalspawn who is attacking Saradush. You eventually find yourself in the Forest of Mir. Here you meet up with Gorion. Wait, what? Yeah, of course, it's an impostor who uses Gorion's form to mess with your head. What a dick. Anyway, after you kill him, you meet Yaga-Shura's mom, who is a witch. She tells you that she wants her son dead, and that you need to go get his heart from the Marching Mountains. Such a loving mother.
You head to the Marching Mountains, kill a bunch of fire-themed enemies, meet a bunch of creatures who also claim to be Bhaalspawn (a chinchilla? Really?), and get the heart, along with the witch's heart. After you give them to her, she suddenly has a change of heart! (Horrible, I know) You kick her ass and destroy both. After that, Yaga-Shura is a wimp. You kick his ass and find Melissan, who tells you about the Five. They are Illasera (how the hell?), Yaga-Shura, Sendai, Abazigal, and Balthazar.
Next, you're told to go visit Balthazar, a badass monk who lives in Amkethran, a desert outpost. Once you meet him, he tells you he doesn't like you, but he doesn't like the others even more and that for the greater good, you should kill them. I love this guy. He gives you directions to their front doors and tells you to finish up your business and leave. What a badass.
You now have the choice of going to kill Sendai or Abazigal. Either way, you kick their asses. After that, you go back to find Balthazar and get some help from an old "friend" to see him. Once inside, Balthazar tells you that he plans to kill the other Bhaalspawn, then kill himself. You can attempt to bargain with him with varying levels of success, but no matter what, you'll have to kill him. After this, you go back to the Pocket Plane (actually you do this after every death of one of the Five, but I haven't mentioned it).
Once here, you're met with a stunning (not really) revelation: Melissan is a traitorous whore! She's actually a priestess of Bhaal that wants to have the power for herself! In an epic showdown, you kill her. The Solar shows back up to offer you two options: Become the new Lord of Murder, or Become a mortal. You get a different ending for either, and all of your party members will have their own epilogues. I especially like Edwin's. Anyway, that's the end of Throne of Bhaal! I'll be doing one more entry where I'll discuss my favorite things about the game. There may also be an LP in the future, but there are definitely a few I want to do before it. Stay tuned!
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