Editing Baldur's Gate (Games) (section)

==Storyline==
===Baldur's Gate===
You begin the game as an orphan raised in Candlekeep, a massive "fortress of knowledge" created by the faithful of [[Oghma]] to preserve and store texts, tomes, manuals, scrolls and other forms of literary knowledge from across the [[Forgotten Realms]]. You were brought here as an infant by the [[wizard]] Gorion, and have never left the security of Candlekeep... until today. Amidst strange rumors of a mysterious "plague" that is afflicting iron in this region of the Sword Coast and a budding war between Baldur's Gate and Amn, Gorion instructs you to gather your belongings and leave, promising explanations once you have united with two friends of his: Jaheira and Khalid.

Unfortunately, he is struck down defending you against a mysterious assailant who ambushes you in the night; a hulking armored warrior who demands your life. At Gorion's instructions, you flee for safety, which he buys at the expense of his own life. You are left without any guidance at all, and alone save for the arrival of Imoen; your foster sister from Candlekeep. With no other purpose, you set about becoming [[adventurer]]s, and slowly unravel the mysteries of the "iron plague".

It turns out that the "iron plague" is a result of a ploy by a Baldur's Gate merchant house called the Iron Throne; having discovered a lost and flooded iron mine in the Cloakwood, they have restored it to functioning condition under the leadership of someone named "Sarevok" through the use of slave labor. Following Sarevok, they used [[kobold]]s to begin sabotaging the iron ore at Nashkel, the region's premier iron mine, and encouraged bands of bandits to begin plaguing the Sword Coast. Likewise, they have fed the rumors of impending war, hoping to profit from their dark deeds.

However, Sarevok has other plans. He had discovered that he is a [[Bhaalspawn]] - a demigodling created by [[Bhaal]], the God of Murder, as an insurance against his destruction during the [[Time of Troubles]]. The Iron Throne believes Sarevok seeks money - instead, he fully intends to plunge the Sword Coast into a bloody war on a massive scale, hoping to ascend and take his father's place as the new God of Murder.

This is why Sarevok sought your death. For you too are a Bhaalspawn. Once you discover this, you must unmask Sarevok's true role in the troubles plaguing Baldur's Gate, and then confront him for a final showdown in an ancient temple to Bhaal in the Undercity. But even as he dies, you can feel it in your bones that this is only the beginning...

====Tales of the Sword Coast====
The second game released in the original Bioware lineup, this glorified expansion pack to the original ''Baldur's Gate'' introduces four new major plots centered around two new areas on the world map; '''Ulgoth's Beard''' and '''Durlag's Tower'''.

'''Durlag's Tower''' is a sprawling dungeon complex erected by an epic-level [[dwarf]] adventurer as a personal home for himself and all his kinsfolk... unfortunately, rumors of his massive stash of treasure lured invaders, in the form of an army of [[doppelganger]]s directed by [[illithid]]s. Only Durlag survived, and the experience of being hunted through his own home by creatures wearing the faces of his wife, children and family left him unhinged. He turned the fortress into a maze of lethal traps and filled it with monsters, and it still remains a death-trap even now. Whilst there are two quests you can receive in Ulgoth's Beard that send you here, you can also come here on your own for a good old fashioned dungeon delve - especially because a "demon knight" has set up shop and is hoping to use the place as a base to launch a fiendish invasion of Faerun. It lies in the extreme south-east of the Baldur's Gate world map, close to the Firewine Bridge and Gullykin.

'''Ulgoth's Beard''' is a small fishing community to the northeast of Baldur's Gate proper. This is where the majority of the new quests introduced in the expansion pack are to be found:
* The local mage Shandalar will ask the player to retrieve his cloak... which entails him teleporting the player's party to a small, inhospitable island and navigating a dungeon full of imprisoned mages driven mad by isolation and hunger, forcing you to kill them all or be killed before he brings you back. He is the kind of guy who would make [[Elminster]] go "dude, you're a dick".
* A dwarf in the local tavern will ask you to recover a special dagger from Durlag's Tower. Said dagger gets you jumped by a bunch of cultists when you return, which causes the dwarf to admit that there's a [[nabassu]] stuck in that dagger. You have to fight your way into the basement of a nearby house and kill the cultists, but not before they release the [[demon]], resulting in a stupidly tough boss fight (he keeps respawning when killed so long as there are "Cult Guards" alive, and he has a special gaze attack that causes whoever it hits to explosively gib and be replaced by a [[ghoul]]).
* A woman wants you to rescue her son, who went off to become an adventurer by exploring Durlag's Tower.
* A mysterious nobleman in a house near the docks wants you to undertake an expedition to an island he claims is the place where the legendary hero Balduran, the founder of Baldur's Gate, ran aground on his final voyage. This requires "acquiring" some sea charts from a merchant house in Baldur's Gate, and then a sea voyage... to an island infested with [[werewolf|werewolves]] and [[wolfwere]]s.

===Siege of Dragonspear===
This is not part of the original quadrilogy of games released by Bioware, but is instead an "interquel" to Baldur's Gate & Shadows of Amn created by Beamdog.

After the events of Baldur's Gate, you have become the hero of the titular city. So of course you are chosen to aid Baldur's Gate's army when Caelar Argent, a mad [[aasimar]] [[paladin]] on a mission to invade the Nine Hells of [[Baator]] begins leading a crusade that ravages the Sword's Coast, especially since it's rumored that she may also be a [[Bhaalspawn]]. And all the while, a mysterious hooded mage is spying on you, observing your efforts.

You eventually succeed in stopping the crusade, possibly even saving Caelar from the machinations of her treacherous right hand and getting her to help you undo some of the damage, but when you return, a murder you've been clumsily framed for, and the political machinations of the city's leaders, see you sent off into exile, with the same party you start the next game with.

It loses major points for the hamfisted ending, which relies on the idea of Baldur's Gate courts being skeptical of the idea that Gorion's Ward could have been mind-controlled into murdering somebody by an evil [[wizard]]... despite living in a world where A: wizards being able to control people is very common B: people '''know this happens''' C: Just Wizards capable of doing it are explicitly at least 0.5% of the population (more than doctors in the real world), to say nothing of the many other classes and magic items capable of doing. It just speaks of obviously wanting to shove "Drama!" into the story and being willing to ignore canon for the sake of it. There's also an NPC that exists purely to tell you they are trans and forces you to praise them ([[Adventure_Path#Wrath_of_the_Righteous|It's a recurring problem with this author]].).

Also, it actually creates a continuity snarl: if you talk to Imoen, Jaheira and Minsc in the original Shadows of Amn game, they make it clear that Gorion's Ward went missing ''first'' and then they all got together to try and locate their missing friend, rather than being grabbed whilst actively adventuring together.

===Shadows of Amn===
You awaken to pain, your memories cloudy, a prisoner in a dungeon overseen by Jon Irenicus, an insane mage who torments you with hideous magical experiments. And then a battle rips through the dungeon. A woman comes to you; Imoen is her name, she tells you, a [[thief]] turned [[wizard]], and your foster sister from Candlekeep. You were abducted some time ago by the mage who has been tormenting you, and she led a band of [[adventurer]]s to your rescue, only to be captured. With the aid of the other survivors, Jaheira and Minsc, you set about escaping from your captor, fighting your way to the surface and discovering you were imprisoned beneath the streets of Athkatla, the capital city of Amn.

Unfortunately, Imoen's attempt to defend herself from your captor with a Magic Missile spell occurs ''just'' as the Cowled Wizards arrive on the scene, spiriting the two of them away for "public use of magic". To pursue them, you must reach the isle of Spellhold, where the Cowled Wizards imprison criminal and crazed magic-users of all sorts... there's just the little matter of building up the extravagant fee to get there first.

Once you arrive, you find your captor has slaughtered the Cowled Wizards and taken over. He imprisons you again and rips out a portion of your soul, having already done the same with Imoen for his sister, a [[vampire]] named Bodhi - as it turns out, Imoen is also a [[Bhaalspawn]]! Abandoning you to die, the wizard leaves, forcing you to give chase. It will take traveling through the depths of [[Underdark]] before you can finally confront him, and learn the truth behind this whole mess.

As it turns out, Irenicus was originally an [[elf]] wizard who sought to become divine by stealing power from a sacred elven relic called the Tree of Life in the elven city of Suldanasellar. So, in a display of stunning stupidity, the elves punished him by ripping out a portion of his soul, effectively reducing him to a [[human]], and exiled him... '''without taking away his epic levels in wizard'''. (He was the elf queen's main squeeze, and she hoped he'd find redemption instead of further damning himself, but still. Damn.) Fueled by rage, he sought to absorb your soul to restore himself to his full power, after putting Imoen's into his sister who'd infected herself with vampirism to stay immortal, and now he wants to complete his original goal and become a god.

This leads, of course, to a climactic battle... and then you being dragged into a fiendish [[demiplane]], the last remnant of the realm of [[Bhaal]], to slay Irenicus a second time and finish him off once and for all.

====Watcher's Keep====
This is a dungeon complex similar to Durlag's Tower in Tales of the Sword Coast. It was introduced as part of the Throne of Bhaal expansion pack, but can be accessed during both a Shadows of Amn game and a Throne of Bhaal game.

During your adventures in Amn, you discover an ancient fortress turned dungeon, whose resident guardians beg you for help. The Watcher's Keep is used to imprison a powerful [[fiend]] - no less than [[Demogorgon]] himself! - but the wardings are starting to fail. Only you are powerful enough to have a chance to fight your way through the monsters and traps to reach the lowest level and restore the wardings to their full power... or slay the beast and banish it back to the netherrealms from whence it came.

===Throne of Bhaal===
The inevitable has come. The Five, a band of powerful [[Bhaalspawn]] have united, plunging the Sword Coast into a bloody war as the children of [[Bhaal]] seek each other out and slaughter each other, determined to be the last ones standing. And you have no intention of just rolling over and dying.

An unfortunately rushed expansion. Not unfinished or anything; just kind of unsatisfying. A semi-official mod put out by the game's creators, called "Ascension," adds a great deal of extra content.

===Black Hound===
The cancelled Baldur's Gate III, before Larian made their own BGIII. It was going to use the [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|3rd edition]] rules, have a new engine, and be the first in a new trilogy, but they lost the license to release D&D games on the PC in the mid-2003. The plot would've gone thus:

You are some random shmuck with no relation to the previous games in the Dalelands, huddling around a fire in an old barn during a storm when a black hound with arrows stuck in it dies on your lap. Then a group of raiders bursts in and their leader, who we later learn is named May Farrow, accuses you of being in league with the dog and almost kills you, but you're saved by the Riders of Archendale who take you to the magistrate where you're questioned. He then tells the you're not allowed leave the areas of Archendale, Battledale, Deepingdale, and North Sembia, and as you wander the lands, the black hound appears whenever you encounter someone burdened with great guilt, and you slowly become the essence of guilt in the four areas due to your actions. As it turns out, May is a widow who felt guilt from believing to have killed her husband, referred only as the farmer, and had him resurrected... only something went wrong and he came back as an abomination. As you've wandered the land, the black hound has been channeling the guilt of others to the farmer, making him stronger and stronger, and you would need to find a way to stop him.

===Baldur's Gate III===
Heretofore un-subtitled, a new game made by Larian instead of Beamdog. [[Illithid|Illithids]] are plotting something and the [[Githyanki]] are on their tail, and that's where you (no longer a Bhaalspawn or one of their descendants) come in. You all meet in an <s>inn</s> Illithid Nautiloid, and get the dubious benefit of being impregnated with an Illithid tadpole, but don't get turned into a brain-eating walking cephalopod. Bhaal and the other [[Myrkul|Dead]] [[Bane|Three]] are somehow behind the events of the game. Also has a few of the classic Bioware mold characters, with the Githyanki fighter Lae'Zel being the "sexy-but-morally dubious-and-dangerous woman" and half-elf cleric only known as Shadowheart being the "socially awkward sweet girl with a tough core".

The game is currently in Early Access and can be purchased on Steam and GOG, though at the time of writing only the first act and about half of the PHB races and classes are available. Larian have indicated that they don't expect the game to reach 1.0 status until sometime in August 2023, and have explicitly warned against buying before then if you desire a full game experience.