Guiding Beacon

Guiding Beacon is a quest in .

Synopsis
"The wizard helped us find the troll's lair – good for him, and good for us. I won't miss him at all – he was so weird and creepy!"

According to Kesten, the troll lair is located somewhere in the Narlmarches.

Find the wizard's whip

 * The item those trolls stole from the wizard turned out to be a silver knitting hook... Ha ha, I wish! Actually, it's a whip with a bone handle. That is so like him.

Decide what to do with the whip

 * We've found the whip. It looks creepy – and very expensive. So what should we do now? Duty dictates we return it to its rightful owner... But my heart whispers: that maniac can surely get by without it!


 * If the quest isn't active

''We've found the whip of the deceased wizard. It looks creepy – and extremely expensive. So, what shall we do with this so-called treasure?''

Walkthrough

 * When the player arrives in Bartholomew's shed during The Nature of the Beast he will be under attack by several trolls, potentially including Dimwit if the player did not or has not has the opportunity to tell Bartholomew to kill or free him. If Bartholomew survives the encounter, he shares that the trolls have stolen his Black Whip and will request that the player retrieve the whip and return it to him, noting that he has the ability to trace its location.
 * Before handing the whip over upon returning to Bartholomew, the player has a few alignment choices to make in the conversation with him:
 * (Lawful Good) Break the whip, because evil.
 * (Lawful Neutral) The player can return the whip.
 * (Chaotic Neutral) The player can lie and say they haven't found the whip, despite the fact that Bartholomew can track its location.
 * (Chaotic Evil) The player can tell Bartholomew that they wish to keep it for themselves.
 * If Octavia or Regongar are in the party, you can give them the whip for use in... recreational activities.
 * If the player returns the whip they will receive a monetary and experience reward. Bartholomew will seethe if the player keeps the whip through any of the other options, but otherwise won't react, and will even sell things to the player until he disappears. The latter method will not earn the player a monetary reward, but they will still receive an experience reward for completing the quest.
 * As long as the player did not force Bartholomew to kill Dimwit earlier, and they returned the whip to him, Bartholomew will be able to be recruited as an advisor. If the player lied to him or told him they wanted to keep the whip then he will decline; at this point the player may pursue another (Chaotic Evil) action and attack Bartholomew now that his usefulness is at an end, as long as they don't wish to have him as an advisor. Be sure to purchase anything that you may regret not having later, particularly the Small Bag of Holding that he has, as Bartholomew is in the middle of packing to leave permanently unless the player recruits him.

Outcome
"The wizard turned out to be highly educated, but not nice at all: he kept a living troll in his laboratory, and performed unspeakable, horrible and inhumane experiments on the poor creature. But you know what people say: evil deeds and curses are like chickens; they always come home to roost. Although trolls are definitely nothing like chickens. – They came here to beat the heck out of the wizard! He'd have been wiser to experiment on chickens… Luckily, the wizard told us where we can find the troll lair: they've stolen some valuable of his, and he's been able to locate it by magical means. So here's the lesson: don't steal from wizards. – And don't upset trolls!"