Summary
: I thought the route where you fight the goblins at the grove would be easier, and it turns out I was right, just not in the way I thought.
: Let’s look at what happens if you try to double-cross Minthara. To do this, agree to raid the grove and then save Halsin. Go back to the grove and long rest.
: The villain route is almost the same, except you don’t free Halsin first.
: “Gods above, you’re alive. A little light, just as the day seems darkest. I’d given you up for dead at the goblin camp - I’m damn glad to be wrong.”
: “But what happened? We’ve seen them massing in the woods.”
- I met the drow leading them - and led her here.
- The goblins are coming - and they’re led by a drow.
- Their drow leader found the grove. I couldn’t stop it - I’m sorry.
: “The goblins are coming. They’re led by a drow. We got completely overwhelmed, I have a hand cramp from killing so many of them.”
: The developers of this game thought of a lot of things, but reducing the number of goblins in the raid based on the number you’ve killed in the camp was unfortunately not one of them.
: “Truly? Hells, I didn’t expect her to.. we were almost ready to leave. Well, there’s nothing for it now. A fight it will have to be. We threw them back once. If you’re with us.. perhaps we can do it again.”
- No point waiting around then. What do you need?
- Do you have a plan?
- With you? You misunderstand - I’m with them."
: “No point waiting around then. What do you need?”
: “We need to thin the goblin numbers quickly if we’re to have any chance of survival. Every ounce of oil that we could spare has been buried out in front of the gate.”
: “We’ll blow the horn to draw them in, and pray our fire-arrows strike true.”
- She’ll take the bait - and with the defenses ready, we’ll win the day.
- I can’t tell if that’s a really good plan or an awful one.
- Surely there’s a better option.
: The better option has already passed by this point. Once you talk to Minthara and agree to raid the grove, she leaves the camp.
: I’d have to check if you can still kill the last goblin leader at that point to avert the raid.
: “If she comes, we’ll be ready.”
: “Your courage is catching, it seems. Or perhaps I’ve finally lost my reason. Make what preparations you deem necessary, and then sound the horn. Let’s have this done.”
: This fight is the same regardless of what side you’re on, which means we’re at a disadvantage. The goblin force is meant to crush the grove by itself on the evil route.
: “This is it. Everything turns on this.”
: “Get that damn gate closed!”
: “I know that you are all afraid… but I also know that you have been fighting your whole lives. We have never been handed the easy choices, or the gentle paths. And this is no different.”
: "These creatures would take our lives, our children.. our future. And we must resist!
Narrator: A splinter of ice works its way into your mind.
: “Now slit his throat, and open that gate. The Absolute wants all of them dead.”
- Obey and open the gate.
- No. This grove is under my protection.
: “No. This grove is under my protection.”
: “Traitor! You think you can stand against me and the Absolute? I’ll dissect you.”
: I didn’t think it would be that tough of a fight, but you only get three tieflings and Zevlor helping you against a small army.
: I hate spiders. Why is it that every spider in this game can either jump miles high or teleport?
: The goblins have three suicide bombers who will try to explode the gate. They have enough HP that they’re hard to stop in time even on this difficulty.
: There’s almost no way to save the tieflings, because if the spiders don’t get them, the ogre throwing goblins in barrels will.
: The end result is everyone almost dying except Karlach. Unless..
: Oh good, Mara’s not around.
: Somebody call me?
: …Nah, you can take this one.
: On a second run, this fight is much easier. The tieflings put a lot of loose oil barrels up here, and they’re not going to do much good there.
: A couple of grease bottles by the gate is a really good idea to stop the suicide bombers.
: As it turns out, placing the barrels where the goblins spawn in makes it so there’s not enough room for the ogre or the spiders, so they get displaced.
: The game locks us from going back to camp once we come back from long resting, so you can’t bring in more barrels.
: Take that, Mara!
: One of the bombers gets taken out by our first explosive barrel. The second one runs into fire at 1 HP and blows up harmlessly.
: The third one gets blown up by one of the other barrels, and now the goblins can’t get inside.
: Since they can’t get in, the ogre and Minthara sit on this raised piece of rock and we can take them out without any of the tieflings dying.
: “That’s.. that’s the last of them. Tymora smile on me… they’re dead.”
: “We did it! Watching gods, you did it.”
: “They name us outcasts. Hellspawn. Foulblood. But the blood of those who fell today ran as pure as any hero’s - so I call us by another name.”
: “We are survivors. We are family. The road to Baldur’s Gate is a long one yet. But you have earned every stride so far. Make your preparations - we leave as soon as we’re able.”
: “You. I don’t know if you were sent here by gods, by fate, or sheer bloody luck. I don’t care. You were a friend when we needed it, and we won’t forget that.”
: “Should you ever need it, you have family in Baldur’s Gate. But we need not speak of departures just yet. We have time - the road is clear. And I, for one, could use a bloody drink.”
: “By all the watching gods.. that’s Halsin. He’ll have some hard words for Kagha, I expect. Go speak to him. You’re the reason he has a grove to return to at all. We’ll be here when you’re ready to travel.”
: Doing the goblin camp this way feels so much better than what you get for just killing the goblin leaders on your own.
: Next time, we’ll take out the final goblin boss and clear up some other quests.
