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Baelen Bonecloak
Overview
Baelen and Derryth Bonecloak run Bonecloak's Apothecary in Baldur's Gate. Needing to restock on of the more popular and expensive items at their store, Noblestalk, they travelled to the Underdark. The two set up a temporary camp in Ebonlake Grotto with a myconid colony, and Derryth sent Baelen off to collect the mushroom.
Involvement
Act One
Baelen can be found trapped in the middle of the Bibberbang Grotto to the northwest of the Myconid Colony. He has been separated from his pack and needs the party's help retrieving the Scroll of Misty Step to safely escape the explosive Bibberbang field. While Baelen's natural resistance to poison would normally help him with the noxious fumes of the Bibberbang, his dropped torch will set their spores alight if triggered, and cause a chain of explosions across the entire field that would no doubt kill him and any other unprepared adventurers.
The party can try to carefully retrieve his scroll to throw or hand to him, or have him use their own scroll if they happen to have one so that he can teleport out of the field. Alternatively, picking up the torch and providing Baelen with healing is enough to have him survive should the mushrooms be agitated. Once safely out of the field, Baelen will display some confusion and act as if he and the party were in the middle of a conversation he forgot about. After a brief exchange of words, he'll give the party a Scroll of Invisibility as thanks and run back to his wife.
Once they are reunited, Baelen will rest near their tent. When asked how he got into his predicament, he will, with difficulty, recall that he was attempting to pick Noblestalk when the ledge he was on gave way and deposited him in the middle of the field. He cannot explain very well why his mind is how it is now and directs any inquirers to Derryth. Derryth herself will be cold when speaking of Baelen, and express more concern about how he has not retrieved Noblestalk than how he almost died. They have been married over eighty years and the first seventy years were not pleasant, as Baelen was a heavy drinker and abusive towards her, drawing attention to her scars. She concludes by saying she'll likely be sending Baelen out again to pick Noblestalk, if not do it herself.[1][2]
If the party has the Noblestalk, Baelen will be happy for Derryth as it will help them keep their shop, Bonecloak's Apothecary in Baldur's Gate afloat. He can be given the Noblestalk directly once the party learns that it could restore his mind, and he will gladly consume it so that he can help his wife with the shop. Once he is restored, however, his attitude shifts back to his old self, and he won't waste time verbally berating his wife for using him as a workhorse when he wasn't of right mind. Baelen will thank the party and invite them to visit him at his shop when they get there, and Derryth will express her disgust at the party and refuse to trade, telling them to leave her alone.
Should Baelen die in the Bibberbang field, Derryth will show more grief about him failing to do his job than about his death. In contrast, if Derryth is killed before Baelen is reunited with her, he will mourn over her body, saying he is nothing without her. If the party admits to killing her, he will turn hostile. Otherwise he will say that he shouldn't have left her alone, and cannot be given the Noblestalk.
Act Three
At Bonecloak's Apothecary, if he was not given the Noblestalk, Baelen can be found cheerfully tending to the shop, greeting any customers that approach. Going through Derryth's journal upstairs in this iteration will reveal that, at some point in the past, Derryth was especially sick of Baelen's drinking and abuse after their return from one Underdark expedition and vowed in writing "if he hits me again, he's going to find some wyvern toxin in his porridge the next morning", an outburst she herself is surprised at later on, amending that she should hide her journal lest people get the wrong idea.
If Baelen was given the Noblestalk previously, he will instead be found alone at his shop, having taken over the inventory that Derryth was previously selling. It appears Derryth had run off one night, fearing his wrath for using him. However, seeing as how there are Absolutists in the city and a murderer terrorizing the citizenry, there isn't much for him to complain about as he has not had any unfortunate run-ins with them so far. He even goes as far to joke that, with any luck, the trouble will end up finding Derryth instead. Should the party condemn him, he'll state that it's what he does to make ends meet, assuming that the party has likewise not been able to get to Baldur's Gate without getting their hands dirty. In this iteration, Derryth's journal will instead talk about how she regrets how the years she's spent suffering under her husband had hardened her heart and made her as cold as Baelen was. And while she has been able to put up with him in the past, the simple return of Baelen's old self has killed her spirit more than any of his past abuse ever did, so she has resolved to leave him.
Should Baelen not survive his Underdark expedition, Derryth will be found alone at Bonecloak's. While she's outwardly as abrasive as ever, she will turn melancholy when thinking of her late husband, stating that they both deserved better than how their lives turned out. She'll reckon that Baelen's soul found its way to The City of Judgement, wasting away unclaimed as a faithless.[3] Her journal in this iteration will concur that Derryth dearly misses her husband, and that she has been thinking of using their own merchandise to cope, though she rebuffs herself, stating that doing so was the very reason Baelen lost his own mind.
Finally, if Derryth was killed in the Underdark and Baelen left alone, or if both Baelen and Derryth die in Act One, Bonecloak's Apothecary will be found still closed, with a simple notice left out front, "Gone shroom hunting."
Gallery
Baelen's model.
Related quests
Related literature
Written by Baelen
Notes
- While Baelen shows up on the minimap as a Trader, he only becomes available as one in Act Three if given the Noblestalk.
References
- ↑ "My husband. Eighty soggin' years together, and he leaves me in the lurch like this."
- ↑ "Sure I did. Before he could do me any worse damage than he did for the first seventy years of our marriage."
- ↑ "We both of us deserved better than life gave us. Now he's off in the City of Judgement, probably wasting away unclaimed, the old heathen. And I'm here. Alone."