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Why did Captain Yurst die? Why can't he be saved?

Discussion in 'Icewind Dale 2' started by SlickRCBD, May 16, 2022.

  1. SlickRCBD Gems: 29/31
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    Something has always bothered me and that is why did Captain Yurst die despite giving him a healing potion and the periapt of wound closure?
    In 2E P&P that would stabilize him and keep him from dying as long as he doesn't take any more damage. Since by this point I've killed the giants attacking him, why did he die anyways?
    It never made sense given how healing works in the Forgotten Realms.
    For that matter, if he was still bad off, why couldn't my cleric cast a healing spell to starve off death? Even a Cure Light Wounds should be enough to keep somebody critically wounded from dying. Granted at that point I couldn't cast Raise Dead yet, but any of these should have saved him.
    How do they justify Captain Yurst still dying when he was alive and talking when we gave healing?
     
    SlickRCBD, May 16, 2022
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    Perhaps just to add more drama.
     
    Mati, May 16, 2022
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    It's just the way they did it made no sense. Having a giant you missed or some other enemy show up and kill him would have worked, but not him dying despite you giving him a healing potion and the periapt of wound closure. Those should work by the way the world is set up to work.
     
    SlickRCBD, May 16, 2022
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  4. gibberishh Gems: 16/31
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    I think the reason he dies (story, not mechanics) is so that you can keep the periapt sans guilt. It's the first regen item you get.

    Ideally you should have a choice about whether to save him (give him the periapt) or keep the regen item for yourself. In mechanics terms, you should be able to take the periapt back from him after he is saved (as a reward or through pickpocketing), but story-wise it would have made more sense to present you with an evil or good choice. I'd have given him the periapt every time because the regen it provides isn't much.

    Of course, this also goes against the mechanics of normal healing (potion, spell, etc.). Maybe he should be inflicted with some exotic venom from all those boring beetles, who got so deep into his wounds that only the periapt can save him and normal healing can't.
     
    gibberishh, May 16, 2022
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  5. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Beren, May 16, 2022
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    Awww. Yurst aint no lion. He does qualify for the "bad things coming" and "nobody is safe" tropes, but his kidnappers didn't even murder him. Or want to murder him. The fool plunged while trying to escape [note to self: do not start struggles or fights in a hot-air balloon], not knowing that he was being transported to what looks like a pretty cushy prison, and the giants were just having fun. Them throwing rocks at him wasn't malicious, he just happened to be collateral damage in their little game. Like boys playing with slingshots.

    Heck, I don't even find him to be a likable character and his death adds no shock value to me. Not after I've seen the attempted plundering of an entire town, the kidnapping of an entire village, the capture of bridges and dams, war drums with summoning powers, and fiends who want to off each other just because. I think by this point the game established pretty well that there is a deadly war underway. :p
     
    gibberishh, May 17, 2022
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  7. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    :lol:
     
    Beren, May 18, 2022
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  8. SlickRCBD Gems: 29/31
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    By itself him dying isn't shocking. It is the way he died that makes no sense. They could have scripted to have a giant take one last potshot at him that does 2 damage that kills him because of his condition. One of the giants that wasn't quite dead and threw one last rock with his last ounce of strength at Yurst out of spite for us putting them to the sword.
    That would have made sense, but him succumbing to his wounds after quaffing a healing potion and using the regeneration item in a world that can bring back the dead and do amazing healing? That made no sense to me. The fact that it's virtually impossible to be able to cast 5th level clerical spells by that point in the game due to the XP penalties would make me accept Yurst's death.
     
    SlickRCBD, May 18, 2022
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