The Calling

A Gibberlings Three Mod
Authors: CamDawg, Lava
On the web: Home page, discussion forum, and Discord

Version 6
Languages: Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Spanish
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Github: Gibberlings3/The_Calling

The Calling really started as a collection of random questions from BG—why didn't anyone take over the gnoll stronghold, considering the two bordering nations are on the brink of war? Why are the only class-specific quests in the game with Narlen Darkwalk? Why isn't Melicamp used more? While the original idea was more along the lines of a stronghold mod for BG, it grew into a planned collection of class-specific quests. Many others were also eager to contribute their quest ideas as well.

While the original idea was to restrict this new content by class, there is a component to unlock all of the content for all classes.

This mod is designed to work with Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, or the conversion mods Tutu, Baldur's Gate Trilogy, or Enhanced Edition Trilogy.

There are no known incompatibilities at this time, though the mod is still in development. It was developed in tandem with BG1 NPC, Sirine's Call, Tweaks Anthology, Unfinished Business for BG, jastey's Slime Mini-Quest, and Song and Silence. jastey and DavidW have also been assisting in development, to minimize the risk of conflicts between jastey's BG Mini Quests & Encounters and DavidW's Sword Coast Stratagems.

The Fighter - Expanded Gnoll Fortress component overwrites the Gnoll Stronghold area art in order to facilitate the new underground areas and, as such, may conflict with other mods that alter the tileset. Weigo was kind enough to help, and due to his hard work it's fully compatible with the Baldur's Gate Graphical Overhaul mod.

The Replace Bandit Scalps with Badges component may need text updates from other mods if they refer to the bandit scalps. Shades of the Sword Coast has been updated or its small interactions with scalps.

If you should encounter any bugs, please report them to the authors at The Calling forum. In addition, The Calling is available on GitHub, so fixes and changes can be submitted by the community.

The Calling has several different components, of which each can be installed independently of one another.

This component is planned as a series of class-specific quests for the game. The PC will be offered these quests based on his or her class (a 'calling'), though the class check can be bypassed with the Make All Calling Quests Open to All Classes component if you want to maximize content. The new quests are generally triggered by the completion of an existing quest; sometimes the calling will involve several small quests or one large one.

Mage - The Cursed Bracers
Currently only available in English, French, Polish, Russian, and Spanish

Thalantyr will initiate the mage calling after Melicamp is saved. The quest revolves around completely destroying the cursed bracers that Melicamp discovered in Thalantyr's safe.

Fighter - Expanded Gnoll Fortress
Currently only available in English

The Gnoll Fortress has been expanded with six subterranean levels. Fighters will encounter an Amnian officer at the entrance with a new quest. Other classes can explore the new areas and face those that rule the fortress, but only fighter may follow the quest and help those that want to put the place into proper use. On EE games, Blackguards are also eligible for the extended quest.

Shaman - The Dream
Requires Enhanced Edition; currently only available in English

The Shaman Calling will begin with a dream some time after exploring the Archaeological Site. There are two variants: one uses colored text in the dialogues and the other one doesn't, in case you find the colored text immersion breaking.

Monk - Restoring Saiai no Hito
Currently only available in English

The Monk Calling will begin by meeting Inoshishi at the Friendly Arms Inn.

Thief - The Bargain
Currently only available in English

Thieves already have class-specific content in the Narlen Darkwalk events in the city of Baldur's Gate. This component expands this a bit with a precursor event near the bridge to the city, and another event after the existing Narlen questline.

Make All Calling Quests Open to All Classes

This component removes the class checks on all Callings, allowing non-mages to help Thalantyr or non-fighters to fully explore the expanded Gnoll Stronghold.

Same-Sex Durlyle/Delainy Subplot
Currently only available in English

By default the village historian on Balduran's Isle will spawn as the opposite gender of the PC: Delainy for male characters and Durlyle for females. They give a few quests and (if the PC is charming enough) can flirt and even collect a kiss from Delainy/Durlyle. This component simply swaps the historian so that Delainy will spawn for female PCs and Durlyle for male PCs. Dialogue is updated to reflect the PC's gender, but otherwise their quests and actions are unchanged.

Peaceful Werewolf Isle Resolution (DavidW)
Requires Tales of the Sword Coast, also available in SCS
Currently only available in Chinese, English, French, German, Polish, and Russian

This idea was originally developed by DavidW for Sword Coast Stratagems and donated to The Calling. This component allows for the possibility of not having to fight Kaishas at the final escape from the island, though it depends on your actions around the island and other factors.

Exotic Items Pack
Previously available in Tweaks Anthology

This component adds a handful of weapons and items available in Baldur's Gate II and scatters them throughout stores, creatures, and containers in the Baldur's Gate portion of the game. Items include katanas, wakizashis, scimitars, ninja-tos, bags/quivers of plenty, ioun stones, and a handful of spell scrolls. However, please note that the items have been placed with an eye towards balance and likelihood that they would be on the Sword Coast at all. The exceptions are scimitars, which are definitely less exotic than the other items and hence more plentiful. This component also fixes a known bug in the game, in that the merchant at Gullykin and the Helm temple in Nashkel shared the same store file.

BGEE added many exotic weapons itself. For BGEE/EET players, there's an additional installation option to remove the exotic items added by BGEE, leaving only the exotics offered by this mod.

Replace Bandit Scalps with Badges
Currently only available in English

Why is the party collecting bandit scalps prior to Officer Vai asking for them? Why are good parties scalping anyone?

This component swaps bandit scalps for small bronze badges, used by the bandits to identify one another. Vai will now ask you for these badges instead of scalps, and other game text and dialogue is updated to reflect this change. Please note that other mods may also need to update text to reflect this change, even though any item checks will work—the item itself remains the same, it's just renamed with new art.

CamDawg and Lava created this mod. You can find out more about The Calling by visiting the forum or her project page. Visit the Gibberlings Three Forums for information on this and any other Gibberlings Three mods on which we may be working.

First, a big thanks to the wonderful community at The Gibberlings Three. Thanks to the still active and vibrant Infinity Engine modding community.

A big thanks to the Gibberlings for useful feedback and suggestions. In particular, I'd like to thank

• Domi: The Emerald Ray and the idea for the mod name itself
• cmorgan: Helpful feedback, as well as the groundwork for the eventual BGT version
• DavidW: Help with the mod as well as donating the Kaishas material from SCS
• jastey: Assistance and help with ideas and whatnot
• Testers: Version 6 was a major expansion of the mod, adding four new callings and three other components besides. A special thanks to our v6 testers: Angel, bob_veng, DiesIrae, Kaelyn, Lumorus, neuroghast, subtledoctor, suy, and Trouveur80.

Expanded Gnoll Stronghold: Thanks to the Hathor and Lava duo for creating the new areas for the Expanded Gnoll Stronghold, with door coding help from Acifer. The areas were first designed and made with Mysteries of the Sword Coast in mind, but then passed on by the mentioned authors to CamDawg.

Thanks also to Weigo, who gave the area a pass to improve how it looked, made a night tileset, and resolved compatibility issues with the Baldur's Gate Graphical Overhaul mod.

Translations: The translations of the Exotic Item Pack are from Tweaks Anthology; the translations of the Peaceful Werewolf Isle Resolution are from Sword Coast Stratagems. Our thanks to the translators of both of those mods.

Thanks to memory for the Polish translation, JohnBob for the French translation, paladin84 and arcanecoast.ru for the Russian translation, and alaisFcZ for the Spanish translation.

Tools Used in Creation

• WeiDU by Wes Weimer, the bigg, and Wisp
• Near Infinity by Jon Olav Hauglid, FredSRichardson, and argent77
• IESDP maintained by igi and lynx
• Notepad++, by the Notepad++ team
• WeiDU Notepad++ Highlighters by cmorgan, updated by argent77
• BAM Workshop by Glenn Flansburg
• G3 Debugging Suite by CamDawg
• ConTEXT Text Editor by Eden Kirin
• WeiDU ConTEXT Highlighters by Idobek, updated by cmorgan
• IE Tileset Map Editor (IETME) by Theo de Moree

The modding community for the Infinity Engine has been going strong for more than 15 years now, and is the culmination of thousands of unpaid modding hours by fellow fans of the game. Modders produce their best work and players get the best, well-supported mods when we all work together.

There are two big ways to upset this harmony. One is to claim someone else's work as your own. The second is to host and redistribute a mod without permission from the author(s).

Be kind to your fellow players and modders. Don't do either.

Version 6 - June 21, 2026

• Version six represents a major expansion of the mod, thanks mainly to the addition of Lava as an author
• Added four new callings:
  • Fighter - Expanded Gnoll Fortress
  • Shaman - The Dream
  • Monk - Restoring Saiai no Hito
  • Thief - The Bargain
• Additional new components:
  • Same-Sex Durlyle/Delainy Subplot
  • Replace Bandit Scalps with Badges
• Added the option to the Exotic Item Pack to remove existing BGEE exotic items
• Compatibility updates for EE Fixpack
• Fixes and improvements for the mage calling:
  • Added journal entries
  • The mines version of Melicamp could default to an invisible animation
  • The random distribution of black pearls to sirines was done through their combat script, which other mods can overwrite (looking at you, SCS). This is now done directly through an effect on the creature file. 
  • Taerom's animation when he forges you an item now plays on him, rather than a random point
  • Iris and Largo's transition between areas was done via queue actions on a dialogue; it's now done directly via their scripts so that it will (hopefully) be more reliable. They will now also leave the High Hedge after Iris is transformed back. 
  • There was a sequence-breaking bug where you could start the incantation series without Melicamp
  • On BGT, the generic Nashkel miners were still leaving after being spoken to once
  • For BGT and Tutu, the standard line about needed a Remove Curse spell has been added to cursed items
  • Removed a script that caused Iris and Largo to wander excessively
  • Received a report that you could ring Thalantyr up for multiple XP rewards, but I was unable to replicate and don't see how. Nonetheless the sequence has been tightened. 
  • During the incantation sequence, high wisdom and/or high intelligence will reduce the number of wrong reply options

Version 5 - November 6, 2023

• Added full Spanish translation thanks to alaisFcZ

Version 4 - October 29, 2023

• Fixes for The Calling component:
  • You could give Keldath a replacement Black Pearl if you got one from him originally. The dialogue was not checking if the party actually had a Pearl, nor was Keldath taking it.
  • If you ask Keldath for one, the Black Pearl will be identified on EE games
  • Balduran's Seatower and this component add Black Pearls to the game. Working with jastey, both mods will now account for the other mod's Black Pearl and appropriate NPCs in both mods will react to both items
• Translation updates:
  • The Polish translation was borked, but Roberciiik sent along a fix
  • Thanks to JohnBob for the updated French translation for the new strings in v4.
  • Thanks to paladin84 for the updated Russian translation for the new strings in v4
  • Thanks to memory for the updated Polish translation for the new strings in v4.

Version 3 - June 16, 2022

• Updated Russian translation, courtesy of paladin84 and arcanecoast.ru
• Fixed a typo or two in the text
• Revamped translation files and how the mod handles encoding
• Fixed the French readme's encoding as it was not properly displaying some characters
• Minor changes for Exotic Items Pack:
  • Tsu-o-Shi now has its own, unique icon
  • The Quiver/Case/Bag of Plenty will better match the projectiles and usability of their underlying items (e.g. shamans could not use the Quiver)
  • The prices of Ioun Stones has been reduced
  • The Flickering White Ioun Stone now displays a portrait icon to go along with its cold resistance

Version 2 - February 8, 2022

• Fixed a bug with The Calling component where the original Melicamp quest was not getting closed out (XP, reputation, proper journal entries) on BGEE or EET games.

Version 1 - December 20, 2021

• Thanks to JohnBob for an updated French translation, as well as some proofreading of the original text
• Fixed a bug where Keldath's dialogue was making a non-sequitur (thanks Gwendolyne)
• Fixed a bug where Taerom would keep repeating his final line at the conclusion of the main Calling quest (thanks morpheus562)
• Fixed a pair of bugs where variables weren't being evaluated in scripts (thanks TotoR)

Beta 3 - October 12, 2021

• Added Polish translation (including for the mage quest) and a readme, courtesy of memory
• Additional PI integration
• When playing Peaceful Werewolf Isle Resolution on BGT, Kaishas would not give the Sea Charts to the player, nor would she (or the other werewolves) leave after the dialogue was complete
• Numerous fixes to the main component:
  • Angel provided several fixes for the subquest of helping Melicamp and the Nashkel miners
  • Iris and Largo no longer take up permanent residence at the High Hedge
  • Melicamp would sometimes not return from the Nashkel Mines, depending on how you resolved the issue with the miners
  • Thalantyr had the wrong 'what to do' reply when asked after helping Iris due to some bad variable checks
  • Taerom would not provide a new item at the conclusion due to misordered triggers (if you opted for it), nor was he actually using the powder or bracers
  • Thalantyr was erroneously bumping a variable after sending you to Taerom, meaning the first time you asked about Melicamp's whereabouts you received the 'you asked already' reply from Taerom
  • The EEs run Melicamp's Anti-Chickenator cutscene slightly differently, so the change to make sure Melicamp survives was not working on the EEs

Beta 2 - February 8, 2019

• Fixes for The Calling component:
  • The guaranteed black pearl has been moved from Sil, since various mods allow her to leave peacefully. It's been relocated to the cave she guards.
  • The mage calling also adjusts Thalantyr's dialogue in a much mod-friendlier fashion. Previously the 'in-progress' dialogues could block needed dialogues from other mods.
  • The cutscene that is supposed to follow the final bracer removal only played on Tutu games.
  • In the sequence at the Nashkel mines where you helped Melicamp restore the memory of two miners, the dialogue from the miners still sometimes read as if the mines weren't yet cleared.
  • Taerom's timer was not working properly since its scope was wrong.

Beta 1 - September 14, 2018

• Initial release