This mod adds more content to the oft-considered tiresome prologue of the first Baldur’s Gate, adding ‘new’ NPCs, extended dialogue with Gorion and your childhood acquaintances, the option to allow Imoen to join you in your last wandering around Candlekeep, as well as many, many extra scenes, including a starting sequence based on your main character’s class with various starting bonuses.
In essence, this turns the tutorial into a boring section of the game which most people choose to either skip or quickly rush through for some starting experience to a more prolonged experience with moments of friendship, some development of Gorion’s character (interpretations may vary) and overall a more emotional departure that makes the homecoming sweeter. The mod also adds some minor Chapter 6 content which builds off the new connections, though most of the focus is in the prologue.
– Introduction of the ‘tutorial party members’—Arkanis, Canderous, Deder, Mordaine and Osprey—as new NPCs in Candlekeep’s courtyard, with dialogues and personalities
– Three minor sidequests involving the NPCs
– An experience reward with words of wisdom from Tethtoril if you complete every optional sidequest in Candlekeep, giving you enough experience to level up. (If you don’t want it, tell him you don’t have the time to listen.)
– Extra dialogue with the NPCs for your reunion with them in Chapter 6
– Improved Arkanis and Deder in the catacomb sequence in Chapter 6, making them stronger, controllable, and expanding their dialogue
– An optional component for an extended starting sequence based on class, paired with extended dialogue with Gorion and an earlier appearance of Ulraunt
– New optional portraits for the aforementioned five NPCs in place of their vanilla portraits
– Osprey as a full-time party member in Siege of Dragonspear
ARKANIS is a Watcher of Candlekeep, whom you know to have served dutifully for as long as you can remember. Defying the common perception of dwarves being sullen and difficult to befriend, you have always known Arkanis to be a gentle, fatherly sort who enjoys telling tales, taking care of children, and reading books together with his close companion Deder.
CANDEROUS is a cleric of Helm, the Watcher. He is not from the Sword Coast, but has called Candlekeep home for at least a few years. Though trained in combat, he has lived a peaceful life within the keep’s walls as a healer, tending to the various minor ailments of the residents.
You know little of DEDER’s past outside of the fact that he was born in the merchant state of Sembia. Though he serves as a Watcher, you know him to be adept in the rogue’s trade, having taught Imoen the skills of thievery during your childhood. He is a person of few words, yet has a close friendship with his fellow Watcher Arkanis.
MORDAINE is a young elven mage who you recall entering Candlekeep as a child with her father and has lived within its walls ever since. Though you have never seen her father after the day you met her, you know Mordaine has never questioned being left alone in the castle, nor does she spare time to tell you her father’s reasons for leaving her, as she oft spends too many long hours delving into the library’s innumerable tomes of knowledge.
OSPREY is a trainee scribe and a childhood friend of yourself and Imoen. A devout—perhaps exceedingly so—worshipper of Deneir, god of scholars and knowledge, nobody could be less out of place in a place such as Candlekeep as Osprey. Capable in both arcane and divine magic, Osprey is an eager student and loves knowledge of all sorts.
In Siege of Dragonspear, Osprey may return as a full-time party member for the expansion.
