Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn/The City of Amn

After leaving Irenicus' dungeon, the player and his party appear in Waukeen's Promenade, in Amn. The player's goal is now to get to Brynnlaw, home of Spellhold and the portal to the Underdark.

A Pearl To You

The first goal is to get 15,000 gold to join either the Shadow Thieves or Bohdi. The undisputed quickest way to achieve this goal is to use the inventory stack underflow trick. It causes a single gem to become 65,535 gems, which can be sold for practically infinite gold.

Shop

Waukeen's Promenade is an excellent place to get all the items, spells, and other equipment needed to complete the game. There are many useful items at the Adventure Mart (Ribald, the bonus merchant, and the spell vendor in the back). Also in Waukeen's Promenade is a spell store, with a few spells that aren't at the Adventure Mart.

Coo!

Gaelan Bayle will talk to the party upon entering the slums.

Posibilities

It is possible to break the script that teleports the party to his house with cutscene breaking. Unless there is a way to glitch a chapter advancement, the game will not be completable until the player enters Gaelan's house and watches the cutscene at the end of his conversation. Should a method be discovered, this would cut out two otherwise unavoidable cutscenes, saving significant time.

Choices

The player has a choice to either work for the Shadow Thieves or Bohdi. Currently, siding with Bohdi is much faster due to how the quests are set up. The Shadow Thief quests are easier, which makes it useful for a single segment run. Whatever you choose, the end result will be a trip to Brynnlaw.

Bohdi Sucks

Bohdi's quests are very flexible.

• The first quest is to get a package from Mook. It can be pickpocketed or recovered from her corpse.
• The second quest is to EITHER: Kill or rescue a halfling from the top floor of the Shadow Thief guild hall, OR: Talk to or kill a noble. If he is killed, you also need to plant the Shadow Thief items in his fountain. Succeeding or failing these quests makes no difference; the quest is completed any way you handle it.
• The third quest it to kill Aran Linvail.

Mook

The package can be taken at any time after talking to Bohdi. The second quest cannot be started until the package is delivered to Bohdi (the quest characters are created after the turn in). Mook is a "blue circle" NPC until her dialog. She is susceptible to talk locking.

Rescue or Murder

Bohdi's next quest is either to "save" Palern Flynn from the top floor of the Shadow Thief guild hall (near Renal Bloodscalp) or to murder a noble in the government district and plant evidence of Shadow Thief involvement at the home. Should you fail at either of these tasks, either by the death of the hostage or by talking to the noble and warning him of the danger, Bohdi will not care and the quest will be complete. Currently, the fastest quest is the one involving hostage rescue. Mook, Aran Linvail, and Palern Flynn all reside in the docks, so with different area dialog to keep someone in your party, you can complete all three quests with a single trip to the docks.

Shade of Aran Linvail

The final quest Bohdi asks of you is to kill Aran Linvail, leader of the Shadow Thieves. It should be noted that you can complete this quest at any time, even before you retrieve the package from Mook.

There are three obstacles keeping you from Aran Linvail. First, his lair is locked from inside and only a special key can open it. The key is held by Gaelan Bayle. It cannot be pick pocketed, and any hostile actions toward Gaelan when you first meet him will cause him to run away for 24 hours. The only way known to kill him early is a combination of talk locking him and using a shapechanged Mind Flayer to intelligence Drain him. Otherwise, the player would need to make a second trip to the Slums.

While the key is the only way to open the doors to Aran's Lair, there is another way to enter. Due to some sloppy coding, the door in the eastern part of the docks can be bypassed. Simply move your mouse around the edge of the doorway until your cursor becomes the pointed finger. Click, and enter. The door is still locked, but the same sloppy coding allows the player to exit in the same manner they entered. This time, the cursor will be an arrow pointing through an open door.

The two other obstacles are the two locked doors between Aran and the player. These doors are easily wall jumped, but if necessary they can be opened. The first door is opened with a button on the opposite end of a spiked bridge. The button will cast flame strike on the user when pushed. The final door requires a key from Haz, a wizard of moderate power. He can be charmed with a Ring of Air Control and pickpocketed.

Aran is also a powerful Wizard, and comes with a group of cronies unless care is taken to avoid the floor trigger that spawns them. Aran will immediately cast mislead, rendering him invisible. He will then cast Cacofiend, and then invisibility a few more times for good measure. He can be charmed with a Ring of Air Control.

Come Sail Away

Upon turning in the final quest to Bohdi, the player is sent to Brynnlaw, home of the Asylum and the portal to underdark.