It's time to look at the questions so far and explain them to all of you so that we can find some more questions.
** Why is it the protagonist is not allowed to spend the night
for free in his own home?
-- As a precautionary measure for the PC's protection. Would you leave your child alone in a huge building full of celibate men?
** Why does the Friendly Arm Inn allow anyone to sleep within the compound?
-- The inn is full but they don't want people to go somewhere else to sleep, they still want them to patronise the bar. Most of the rooms are taken already by men who wear bronze underpants. A few rooms are always reserved for possibe occupation by visiting celebrities such as Jenna Elf-Man, Brad Pitt Fiend, the Loan Ranger and the Elven queen's charming consort, Prince Jonaleth, and his sort of Gothic sister.
** Why does Candlekeep forbid most guards from carrying swords and then sell all sorts of weaponry at the store?
-- The guards are bound to observe the Candlekeep motto: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Sometimes they also have to occupy Havana and the Philippines.
** Why do assassins believe crowded inns to be the best place to slay someone?
-- Since it's too risky for assassins to advertise openly, they rely on their public reputations to get them future hit-jobs. The more people who see you kill someone, the greater your rep becomes. And if you commit murder in a pub, the guards have few if any reliable eye-witnesses among the intoxicated customers. This will all change in the far distant future when Toril gets its own Internet. Then assassins will all have pages on the trans-planar website, Phasebook.
** Why do hobgoblins have blond hair after you scalp them?
-- Goblins are humanoid and made only partly of human bits. Their hair is made of the same substance as bird droppings, which go white when they dry. Hobgoblin hair is similar to dog poo. It bleaches quickly in sunlight.
** Why do stores buy bounty notices and other such documents?
-- Paper is rare on Toril and parchment is expensive. By recycling things like notices, merchants have found that old publications definitely are worth the parchment ithey're printed on. Most merchants sell the old parchments "as is" to parchment-makers. Others apply beneficiation first to improve the profitability of their recycling. You remove writing from scrolls by soaking them in lemon juice. If this doesn't work, you can add some cinnamon and sugar and turn the parchment into a pancake.
** How is it that you can store items worth thousands of GP in any old barrel or box and nobody ever takes your stuff?
-- Before they stash the loot, your adventurers put stickers on everything: "Beta version from Microsoft."
** Why does Mulahay(sp?) not kill Xan outright when he captures him?
-- Xan is so dull that everyone thinks he's already dead.
** Why did Sarevok, awesome behemoth that he is, not deal with the PC personally while he had the chance?
-- He would have if your snivelling little PC hadn't run away while his foster father was being murdered. I'm afraid you must face a sobering truth about
BG1: Your PC is a sissy.
** Here is this absolutely huge mutha [Sarevok], with facial tattoos and glowing eyes, yet somehow he is able to infiltrate Candlekeep and fool the PC into thinking he's some regular Joe called Koveras, which, as we all know, is Sarevok backwards (not very original for a guy with 17 int), just by removing his armour.
Likewise, in
BG2, if you choose the bridge route into the Asylum (as opposed to getting yourself committed), how is it the PC fails to recognise that the "director" is Irenicus?
-- There's your reason: "17 int." Even if you could boost it a few points it wouldn't be greater than 20. Psychologists on Earth devised a scale of intelligence that was used here until quite recently, so you can be sure they were using it in the old days on Toril when your PC set out adventuring. On this scale, average IQ is 100. At the bottom of the scale are:
20 or less, Idiot.
20-49, Imbecile.
I'm glad my IQ is way up there in the 50s. This makes me a good mid-range Moron.
** Well, even without the armour, the eyes are a bit of a giveaway. Unless [Sarevok] can turn them on and off at will like car headlights... (And why does he have them anyway? He's supposedly human, and if it's the result of the taint, why don't the other Bhaalspawn have them...and why does he *still* have them after he's lost his taint in
ToB?)
-- Grass. It used to make my eyes glow red. It also made me think I was a half-god when I was driving home from parties. Haven't you heard Sarevok exulting when you find him for the final showdown? His gazes around that temple and declares, "This joint is all mine!"
