Harmonium Guards @ Clerk Ward (Possible Spoilers)

nihilxcore · Post by **nihilxcore** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:17 pm

I made the mistake of attempting a pickpocket on a whim in the Marketplace of the Lower Ward and got caught. And by 'on a whim' i mean i didn't save prior to the attempt, so I just kind of fled the area and since none of the outside guards seemed to care, I just went on about my business.

Well now that I've moved on to the Clerk's Ward, all the Harmonium Guards are aggressive and attack me on sight and with about 10 of them, its nearly instant-death of party members and TNO. I even let them go ahead and kill me in hopes that would kind of serve as my punishment and the game would forget about my crimes, but it didn't.

Also, I've been avoiding the intelligent decision to save in multiple slots so my last save is back in like ... the mortuary some 12 hours of gameplay ago, if not more.

What I'm asking is ... are these guards going to attack me forever, have I simply ruined my game with a botched pickpocket? Is there a work around?

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:20 pm

Do the guards respawn ? If not you just have to kill them, TNO can die as often as he wants, the guards die only once. So if you manage to kill one guard before dying each time the problem will soon be solved. Just make sure TNO dies before the other party members, else you'll have trouble with inventory management.

If you think your character is a little weak even with perfect buffing there are still a lot of opportunities for XP farming in other areas.

You can also try to run past the guards to accomplish the quests there

You could also try changing TNO into a thief, dismissing the other party members and doing the hide-backstab-run around a corner-hide tactic.

nihilxcore · Post by **nihilxcore** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:25 pm

I will try the backstabbing tactic and see if they respawn. Knowing that will narrow down the options a little.

nihilxcore · Post by **nihilxcore** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 3:01 pm

This method isn't working very well. I'm tempted to just character edit TNO to near invincibility just to get past this hang-up, and then drop him back down to normality. At least that will prove if the guards are spawning, which I can't even figure out because there is such a large crowd of them.

Qwinn · Post by **Qwinn** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:19 pm

It is possible to get Diligence, a white haired rich looking woman who walks around the left side of the Clerk's Ward, with a Harmonium Guard named "Matter of Course", to call off the guards. She will do this only once.

This won't make the currently hostile guards go neutral, but it -does- stop any new spawns. You can then kill off the hostile ones until the problem is solved.

For the record, my upcoming Fixpack 3.0 will make it so that when Diligence does her thing, the currently hostile guards will go neutral as well.

Qwinn

nihilxcore · Post by **nihilxcore** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 1:57 pm

Oddly enough, it was speaking to Diligence that got the guards called on me one time. And literally that is all I did: speak to her. She said something to the effect of, "How dare someone of your stature attempt to speak to me! A Magistrate of the Fourth Something-or-Other! Guards!!" And I was given the options to "Attempt to Flee." or "Attack her."

I don't know what I did to warrant this. I think I had either a Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Good at the time, so I can't imagine it was that.

By the way, I'm sure the answer is "Start over." but if I was to apply your fixpacks/mods, would my old save's become unusable?

Curry · Post by **Curry** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:14 pm

Just ignore the guards and run

nihilxcore · Post by **nihilxcore** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:21 pm

I tried that too. They will follow you into buildings, even. And considering there's literally about 10 of them, it can make getting past them without getting hacked to pieces difficult in narrow hallways.

I've pretty much just taken up the method of character editing anytime they get called on me, killing them, then editing back down to normal.

I feel kinda guilty about it, but its a stupid issue in the game to begin with. Perma-hostile guards.

Qwinn · Post by **Qwinn** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 8:04 pm

"By the way, I'm sure the answer is "Start over." but if I was to apply your fixpacks/mods, would my old save's become unusable?"

Wouldn't help you right now, I'm afraid. The fix to the guards isn't in yet - version 3.0 won't be released for at least a month, I don't think. And even then... well, if your game had any mods like Platter's or SKARDAVNELNATE's, you'd need to do a fresh install, and if you then applied my fixpack (I wouldn't recommend trying the other mods in such a weird situation) it -might- work. It very well might not. Would depend a lot on what areas you'd visited before you tried it, etc. I'd guesstimate a 40% chance of working smoothly. No guarantees at all.

Qwinn

Seewolf · Post by **Seewolf** » Wed Oct 06, 2010 6:20 pm

Hostile Harmonium guards

I really love this RPG pearl so far, which I unfortunately missed back then, but as an RPG Veteran, who way back enjoyed outstanding classics like Baldur's Gate I & II, Fallout 1 & 2 and Neverwinter Nights including all add-ons, I always wanted to check out the almost legendary Planescape Torment.

Now it seems like I've got a similiar problem as the OP: the Harmonium guards turn hostile just because of a minor, but silly wrong move. I really hate such situations…

In the Lower Ward the Harmonium guards try to hunt me down, because I killed 2 passing by black Abishai, which turned hostile after I had dared to speak to them, despite the warning of my party members. I know it was silly, but I just wanted to check out my combat strength against those feared critters and had no idea that it would turn out to be a problem to slay such fiendish creatures. After all in the previous areas, f.e. in the Hive nobody ever reacted or helped, when street thugs attacked my character and since I didn't start the violence with the Abishai, but simply defended myself, this is really stupid!

Somehow the fight also made 2 or 3 Lower Ward townsfolk hostile, although I didn't harm them in any way. Tried the spell pacify on them, but still they stay hostile and make the guards want to kill me as soon as I come close, although I'm playing a neutral good mage character, which did lots of good deeds so far.

Still it doesn’t help, I continuously run into fights with the Harmonium guards and I fear that this will pretty much screw the game.

I'm really not planning to start this game from anew, after I went so far already and spent so many hours of my rather scarce free time.
Unfortunately I have no earlier save game left, so I have no other choice than continuing to play or giving it up.
Does somebody know what consequences I'll have to face now? Will all Harmonium guards in every other level, where they appear, be hostile, too?

Is there anything one could do in order to get things straight again within the existing save game?
Do some mods or fixes help? If yes, which ones should I try? Are they save game compatible?

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Edit/Update: I just slayed all hostile Harmonium guards in the Lower Ward, except those in the market place, which didn't turn hostile anyway. I was able to continue the game quite normally so far, even 2 new Harmonium guards appeared in the Lower Ward patrolling the area, without attacking me. I can even speak to them as if nothing ever happened. I hope I'll simply get away with the necessary bloodshed... The Harmonium guards in the Clerk Ward are peaceful, too, so I think everything is alright again.