Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear – the gap-filling expansion

Story cont’d

Getting ready

While Imoen is incapacitated, you start looking for your previous companions. And oh, you’re also supposed to retreive your money. Or at least when you try to, you discover that it’s all gone and that the treasurer bet it all and lost it. There is a whole easter-egg mini-series of encounters with him. But in the end he doesn’t end up bringing you much of it and just ends up getting killed. Bye bye money. Unforunately, you find that in addition to your money being lost, you’re now also unable to find more than a few companions to join you, as they’re initially absent or busy with something else. Though some of them will join you later on your quest. But you will at least get Corwin, great archer from the Flamming Fist, to escort you through the city. There are a couple of side quests in this part of the game, but nothing really major. In the meantime, the Grand Dukes close a deal with Waterdeep and Daggerford to create a coalition against the Crusade. So soon you leave the city, and in that moment you can also get Corwin to join your party. It is worth mentioning that because of the nature of the Siege of Dragonspear, you can not return to most of the previous locations once you advance further on.

The bridges

Your first stop is at the Coast Way crossing, over the Winding Water river. Unfortunately it’s booby-trapped with explosives and some of the frightened forces of the Crusade destroy the bridge just as you get there. But you get the first chance to chat directly with the Shining Lady Caelar Argent. Some time ago when the portal to Avernus was opened for the second time from Dragonspear, fiends and demons managed to siege the castle for a few years. They destroyed some villages nearby and dragged many innocent souls to the Nine Hells. You discover that the plan of the Crusade is to march to Avernus in an effort to free those innocent souls. She just somehow forgets to explain all the plundering and destruction on the way of the Crusade.

So you have to find another way, and ultimately that ends up being the Boareskyr bridge. This time you have to take a sneaky approach as not to trigger a repetition of what happened at the Coast Way crossing. After visiting the Crusade camp, you arrive at the keep near the bridge which is besieged by the Crusade. You find Khalid and Jaheira, learn how to help them, do a couple of side quests and exploration of the surrounding areas. Here you are presented with the possibility of proceeding in a few different ways. Either you can take the expedition forces, or you can choose to take the besieged forces to fight against the Crusade. The third option is to destroy the supplies in the keep and surrender. Or you can combine all three. One way or another, you end up traversing the bridge.

Here is your first noteworthy encounter with the Hooded Man. Along the way, he’ll continue presenting himself directly at you or he’ll pop up in your thoughts and talk to you about your destiny and so on. The Boareskyr Bridge is the place where your father, the god Bhaal, was slayed by The Mad Cyric. So some remains of his aura are stil present, which due to the Mans endeavour results in the Bhaal symbol being burned onto the bridge. You can guess what sort of impression that gives to the expedition group. Beamdog managed to get the same voice actor for this character, so I recognized him immediately. And although initially he doesn’t seem to play an important role, he most certainly will later on.

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