Aran's betrayal (SPOILERS!)

elephantman · Post by **elephantman** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 11:47 pm

Aran's betrayal

In the beginning is there anything valuable in seeing Renal Bloodscalp? I didn't have a chance to meet him, I had already sided with Bodhi?

What about the room where if you sided with the Shadow Thieves, there was an opposing guild thief that u had to kill in one of the houses where Edwin is in. If u side with bodhi can u still meet up with the traitor to the Shadow thieves and kill him?

I'm a paladin, doesn't the cabin in Umar hills have some goodies after u killed the shade lord? I've noticed that when u are a ranger u get a note from the mayor and some decent loot.

Sabre · Post by **Sabre** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 12:46 am

Not sure about the first two questions.

About the cabin - no, you don't get any more stuff in the cabin after you kill the Shade Lord, that's part of the Ranger Stronghold stuff.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 1:10 am

In what way did Aran betray you?

As you've sided with Bodhi, you can no longer meet with Renal and get the Mae'var quest. You should have met with Renal first, taken out Mae'var and his crew, and then sided with Bodhi. Now you'll miss out on a lot of loot (the Shadow Armor, Boots of Stealth, a Short Sword +2 and more) as well as the possibility to have Edwin join you.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 2:19 am

Originally posted by mental_nomad
I'm just curious but won't being a Palidin and siding with Bodhi be a major conflict? bodhi is a serious evil option right?

I'm pretty sure you could do that, but Keldorn (also a Paladin) and Mazzy (Paladin wannabe) will leave, should they be in the party. Actually, some people on this board have pointed out that the Shadows Thieves are evil as well, and by siding with Bodhi, you get to kill both group.

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 4:54 am

Originally posted by mental_nomad
I'm just curious but won't being a Paladin and siding with Bodhi be a major conflict? bodhi is a serious evil option right?

To answer your question, a Paladin shouldn't work for someone evil, such as Bodhi. It's against their code. Besides, doing anything that makes an evil creature stronger is bad business. Also, Paladins don't accept the idea that the end justifies the means. For example, you shouldn't murder a bunch of Shadow Thieves to help your friend Imoen. There are all sorts of reasons why working for Bodhi is wrong from the Lawful Good perspective.

But from a Chaotic Good or Neutral Good perspective, it's not so clear that siding with Bodhi is worse than siding with the Shadow Thieves. The alignments do have their differences. For example, a Chaotic Good character would torture an enemy if it would help save lives. A Neutral Good character would look beyond the immediate situation and consider the greater good.

Here's how my own Neutral Good characters look at it:

The Shadow Thieves' operations consist of: burglary, extortion, smuggling, slavetrading, assassination, in-house torture, and generally terrorizing the entire city. They want you to eliminate the only group that has ever successfully opposed them--Bodhi's guild--so that they can continue their operations. In other words, if you help the Shadow Thieves, you will be helping them continue to burglarize, extort, smuggle, trade slaves, assassinate, torture, and terrorize. You will cover yourself in blood. Is this supposed to be the GOOD choice?

Now look at Bodhi. As far as you can tell, Bodhi doesn't prey on anyone but Shadow Thieves. That's the extent of her operations. Now look at what she asks you to do for her. As she puts it, "You will have the chance to destroy the largest criminal organization in Amn." You don't have to kill anyone but Shadow Thieves. As a matter of fact, you even get to rescue a couple of people who are being tortured. How evil is THAT? Minsc loves the idea. He says, "We will charge into the midst of the den of thieves and fling them about like pancakes! All that is glory shall be ours! And then breakfast." Spoken like a true hero!

Even though a Paladin shouldn't work for Bodhi, I don't know how a Paladin is supposed to justify working for the Shadow Thieves, either. But then again, I don't play a Paladin, so I'm not used to thinking the way that they do. It seems to me that a Paladin wouldn't work for either group. He would try to storm Spellhold himself--the honorable way. Of course, he'd never make it there without the help of pirates and scoundrels, so it looks to me like he'd be stuck. Any comments?

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 5:17 am

Originally posted by Astafas
In what way did Aran betray you?

I could be wrong, but I thought Elephantman was referring to your character's betrayal of Aran: "The Betrayal of Aran." The game assumes that you're his "employee", although personally, I've never really seen it that way. But that's the way the game wants it to be, and I guess you don't have much choice.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 5:25 am

Originally posted by VonDondu
The game assumes that you're his "employee"

Well, only if you accept his offer, hardly if you side with Bodhi instead. But that could be it anyway, I guess.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 7:11 am

@Elephantman, if you're going to start up a thread like this which has spoilers (even your opening post does), please indicate that in the thread heading. The site owner has posted a sticky at the top of the category, requesting everybody to be a little sensitive to all newcomers who don't want to read info accidentally that will wreck the game for 'em.

I'll change this thread title. Please do so in the future, on your own. Thanks.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 7:25 am

I'm just curious but won't being a Palidin and siding with Bodhi be a major conflict? bodhi is a serious evil option right?

Makes sense, however, I played an undead hunter and still sided with bodhi on the argument that eventually I'd get to slay everyone. It's still cheesy but I found a lot of humor in it.