Fire beetles' belly

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This might be a dumb question but what use are all of those Fire Beetle's Bellys that I keep finding as treasure after I kill those darn bugs?

 

Wizards and sorcerors can use them to make magic items at the Mages' Guild (and a few other places) once they complete the quests that teach the formulae. They don't have any use for other characters as far as I know.

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

In Port Llast, theres a magic seller who requires a magical reagent before she will sell you anything, she will accept amongst other things fire beetle bellies or skeleton knuckles, so it might be a good diea to hang onto one or two. Wouldnt worry about it too much, she doesnt seem to be seling anything mindblowing, and there are plenty of other merchants in Port Llast.

 

They Play a big part in Charwood. To summon the demon in the Trial quest u need one. Thats for anyone. To make the quest come out right you need to summon the demon.

 

Uh, no you don't. I completed that quest successfully (and correctly) without any vile demon summonings. The necessary information is there already, the demon is just icing on the cake.

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

I tried it twice
One convicted the child killer
The second time found them both not guilty.
First time the town was torched the second time the town was intact and the majors ghost said thank u

 

Well, I convicted the more responsible of the two brothers. That accorded with what the Spirit of Lathander said afterwards. The town was in ruins, but the mayor said thank you and rewarded me.

Spoilers below.


I suppose you could argue the demon was really responsible, not either of the brothers. So maybe 'no one is guilty' is the 'best' choice as far as the scripting goes? But I certainly wouldn't exonerate the guilty brother for that. He knowingly connived with the demon to harm those children, even if he thought the harm was minor. The demon couldn't have done anything without the brother's cooperation. Guilty as charged, says I!!

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

The key to this part of the quest is that if you judge Quint as guilty, Karlat will get the phylactery to continue his ritual making the town become cursed (and there are some meanies for you to fight to get out of there. If you find Karlat guilty, the phylactery is destroyed and the town is in ruins (no baddies) If you find neither guilty, then Berial (sp) is the guilty party and you have the choice of taking the phylactery with you. My problem with this was that a couple times after summoning Berial (sp) I never got to talk to him to get his oath....he just attacked me......hmm.....

Anyway,

Hope this clears that up

Also.....to answer another point from the original topic.....at Eltoora (sp) in Port Llast, you can use firebelly's combined with something else then apply a spel to them to turn them into a staff of power.

 

Yeah, but Karlat is still the guilty party. He's the one who made the decision to do bad things. Berial is a demon and like all outsiders is hardcoded into his alignment. And, unless I missed something, he didn't *do* anything except advise Karlat (bad advice, admittedly!).

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

Ok.......This is according to the "versus books" (interesting reading)

It says that Berial deceived Karlat by not informing him of the truth of the ritual, making Berial the guilty party. When you speak to him, he also gives you a written oath explaining what had happened. I was just trying to point out that the most IDEAL judgement for the adventurer, the accused parties, and the citizens of Charwood, is to judge Berial as the guilty party. You get the phylactery, Karlat and Quint live, and the town gets back to normal. When judging against Quint, the whole town gets burned to the ground (I've seen it, pretty gruesome), when judging for Karlat, the town basically disappears. This isn't as bad as the first option, but still not better than judging against berial and acquitting the brothers.

My 2 cents

 

Yes, I understand some namby pamby type obviously designed that little case. But we 'lawful neutral' types don't buy this 'the devil made me do it' crap. You did it and you are going down, sucka!

Regardless, it is possible to make an informed judgement that Karlat is guilty without engaging in any loathsome acts of diabolism. This isn't the 'best' solution, but it is a 'good' solution. The bad guy gets punished, the townsfolk are happy, you get rewarded, etc. The phylactery gets turned into scrap metal, but who'd want something like that anyway?

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

Hm, the choice of convicting Karlat is a "Lawful Neutral" choice? I believe that not convicting the brothers is the "Lawful Neutral" choice

Anyway, I think the only guilty party here is the Balor. Firstly, Karlat was merely looking for guidance on how to complete his ritual. He turned to Berial, who he believed knew how. Berial, being a Chaotic Evil creature, lied to Karlat about the children. Karlat sacrificed the children, but he believed it was for the greater good, thus ultimately he thought would please the Morninglord. Quint, on the other hand, did not know anything about the sacrifice before it happened, and so could not be blamed. This leaves us with Berial. If you want to talk about alignment, then Karlat is probably Chaotic Good which 'justifies' his actions.

Hm, this has gotten way off-topic

 

Anyone who can possibly be stupid enough to believe harming children is a "good" way to get power (especially selfish power like endless life) deserves to be roasted.

Anyone stupid enough to ask for advice from a demon and actually take it, deserves to be roasted.

Anyone who deliberately tricks his brother into unwittingly doing evil deserves to be roasted.

Hmm, those all sound a lot like Karlat.

Sure, Berial is a bad guy. Duh, he's a demon. Like that was hard to figure out. But that in no way exonerates Karlat. I don't really care what silly self-delusions he used to justify himself.



Aloha
Vormaerin

 

So WTF can I use the beetle's bellies for?

 

Thanks.

 

Not exactly offtopic: A nice true rpg atmoshpere just erupted when I was playing with a silent party in Castle Jahreg and summoned the demon. We had no protection from evil! Had forgotten all about that. As soon as he was summoned, the entire room erupted in fires as he started casting his spells (firestorm + firewall all around the room). In seconds hell raised, and we were -for the lack of a better word- f*cked. For what must've been about 5-10 minutes we fought resurrecting each other, laying support spell after another. All potions and scrolls out and fighting and fighting and fighting. Some respawned and teleported into the fight again. Just as I was about to die my first time, he died. (I had a 14lvl druid so the greater stoneskin + healing spells + familiar + summoned elemental helped me stay alive in the frontline. But I have to thank that lady barbarian for my life as well

T'was the most awesome battle I've had in NWN so far. Really had the rp feeling to it. We all agreed it was awesome, everyone was putting his/her everything into the battle. Although the hard-earned victory was worth no more than about 170 exp for me, and no items were gained. It was still well worth it. Surprises always make the best fights.

 

About the fire beetles; iirc you need a fire beetle belly (among other things) to get a wardstone in Wanev's cottage in Port Llast. (The wardstone is for Wanev's tower)