Mild "spoilers" wanted for a few things in BG2

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I think I have played through BG2 about 6 times so far over the years and I seem to recall in every playthrough there have been some locations and people that I have never really seen the point of. So, listing these in no particular order, could someone give a gentle hint on what these things are?

1) The Guarded Compound in Temple District. On the top floor there are enemies who attack you immediately and have empty potion bottles in their inventory.

2) Small Tooth Pass and North Forest. These ares, especially Small Tooth Pass seem so small and pointless. North Forest has some enemies that just happen to be there for no explanation and attack as soon as I see them. Small Tooth Pass is mostly impassable rock that is only visible through spells like Farsight. They just seem oddly incongruous areas of the map.

3) In the sewers there is an Ilithid complex that contains a "correspondence" scroll. I never understood what it was meant for.

4) In the docks there are some military barrack areas in the east which you can enter.

5) Bodhi has some books on vampirism stashed in the tombs. Can these be used?

6) What are the dog meat/ dog bones used for in the D' Arnise Stronghold? I managed to kill the dogs and cook some meat but I didn't seem to have enough meat to cook for anything to happen.

7) The Rune cult in the Docks area that can only be accessed by a rogue stone. I don't recall knowing finding anything else about them in the game, apart from stumbling upon them by accident.

I know I could find out what these locations/ items are for if I searched online, but having it told to me totally bluntly and unambigously would spoil it for me! I would much rather have subtle "clues" as to what these things are.

 

I believe it is in part to show how corrupt things are when there is a military presence there yet the docks are one of the more dangerous areas to walk around, particularly at night with the open warfare between the thieves and the vampires.


Now I'd like to throw my own into the mix.
What was the deal with Andora and the mycons in that quest in the slums?

 

Many of these locations were part of scrapped quests/questlines that the devs decided to leave in the game anyway, or were just the developers adding their personal touches to the game (after all, these games were made by gamers for gamers). The Twisted Rune was supposed to be an overarching questline referenced by several other different quests, for example, from the Skinner quests to Nalia's personal quest (which actually also mentions slave lords in Temple District ie. the Guarded Compound).

A lot of things are also added into the game for flavor, like the presence of SoA's second demilich (bonus points if you can guess who).

Relevant interesting read: http://blog.brentknowles.com/2009/08/25/bioware-brent-year-1-1999/

 

There is a mod (Unfinished Business, perhaps) that fleshes out the link between the guarded compound and the twisted rune. I vagely recall there also being something somewhere that actually points the player to the guarded compound, because as it is, only a persistent desire for exploration will actually get the player there. Especially given that looting random houses is likely to get the authorities down on yourself, and there is no indication that this would not happen in the guarded compound.

I believe at least the guarded compound, the twisted rune, and the illithid layer in the temple sewers have been confirmed to have been more or less cut content, where the links between the areas were cut, but the areas themselves were left.

@Paracelsi, where is the second demilich in SoA then? Don't recall ever seeing more than the single one.

 

I think if you go through the whole barracks on the other side is a door that leads directly to the true shadow thieves base (you still need the key though as I recall) so I think that was supposed to be an indication that they were working together. The thieves had bought off most of the garrison which should be no surprise.

Mycons? I do not remember that at all right now which is odd.

 

The scroll in the Illithid complex could lead to Lady Jysstev in the Government District. She is connected with Illithids’ intervention somehow, it’s clear from Jan’s quest. And there is a locked chest in her mansion that can never be opened. I wonder what that chest could contain.