Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 1 Prologue - A Surprise

(The first three chapters serve as an introduction and prologue; the main text begins in Chapter 4.)
It was an ordinary day. The clouds in the sky obscured the weak winter sun, causing the already cold earth to lose even a little warmth.

Zhang Yuan, the owner of this ordinary name, is an average-looking, introverted young man. As a graduate student, after struggling with his group project and searching for materials in the library all day, he finally returned to his cramped single-room rented room of only ten square meters. He skillfully turned on his desktop computer, which he had bought long ago and was now covered in dust due to laziness, and effortlessly launched Dota 2, also known as "Auto Chess Launcher," on Steam.

While waiting for everything to be ready, he casually plugged in the kettle and poured the tea leaves into the teapot. Then came the short wait. Playing chess and sipping tea—truly one of life's great pleasures, Zhang, the chess master, thought contentedly.

There was no annoying incident like Seventh Master waiting for Sun Quan for two minutes only to lose contact; the game proceeded smoothly. Blingbloon, I'm a robot!

A perfect hand of clockwork goblins! Seeing a whole row of clockwork goblins pop up on the screen, Zhang was overjoyed and flipped over the Clockwork Queen without hesitation.

Looking at the legendary orange card pool again, Dwarf Gyrocopter, Goblin Engineer, and Snapfire were all listed. Perfect! This is a Goblin build! The first round began, and Clockwerk swung his wrench, effortlessly killing both neutral monsters one by one.

Along with the two gold coins, a treasure chest also dropped. Zhang Yuan, who had casually bought two other clockwork goblins, didn't open the chest. He was used to choosing the reward treasure after three rounds based on his lineup, so he had that much patience.

After three rounds, although they didn't have a Timbersaw, they managed to form the Goblin synergy with Clockwerk, Engineer, and Bounty Hunter and successfully defeated the enemy in the fourth round. However, as each round ended, things started to look less promising.

By the seventh round, the three small units had been upgraded to two stars. Although the five-unit lineup of Fire Mage and Electric Soul was powerful, the core main force of the Goblin faction, Timbersaw, was still nowhere to be seen.

"Don't fucking mess with me!" Zhang Yuan, who had been waiting for the Timbersaw for ages, glanced at the other players' boards and found that there were two other players besides him using the Iron Goblin strategy. One of the players even pulled out a two-star Timbersaw and put it in the front row alongside the Beastmaster.

"This is my damn logging machine!!!" Zhang's eyes lit up with envy.

In the game of Auto Chess, it's not that you're afraid of being stubborn, it's that others are going to be stubborn against you; it's not that you're afraid of winning big, because there are often people who are even better at winning than you.

Especially in the current version, Goblins are already weaker compared to T0 and T1-level decks like the "Odor" and Shaman decks. Add to that the fact that with so many players choosing the Goblin faction, the Goblin card pool is already limited, making the competition extremely fierce for Goblin decks that desperately need to get three-star units.

It's common for goblins to die together, and as for the goblin orange card build being invincible in the late game? That's just wishful thinking. Ninety-nine percent of gold core goblin players die with regrets before they even see a single gold core.

What to do? Should he switch to the mage faction or stubbornly continue? After hesitating for a moment, Zhang Yuan adopted a compromise: the retro goblin mage! Goblins in the front row, mages in the back, gather three human mages to consume books, three artisans to consume cores, and develop stealthily. It depends on the late-game hand; see if the mage or goblin cards are more favorable.

While it wasn't exactly a perfect start, it did have a bit of luck. After outlasting the other two competitors, they barely managed to snag a third-place finish with their late-game six-goblin, three-mage lineup.

Faced with the well-formed, foul-smelling Demon rush and the Shaman rush that resembled Transformers or Barbara Fairies, the steel-boned goblin machines could only helplessly rust and scatter on the ground. "This was a good move, 666!" After praising his own strategy in his mind, Zhang Yuan exited the game with satisfaction. As for luck? Absolutely none! It was all about strategy, strategy! Zhang Yuan thought about the game that had just ended and casually wished the dealer well.

Exiting the game, Zhang Yuan glanced at his desktop. "Hmm? New email." He casually opened his email, but was then shocked by the surprise that followed.

"Baldur's Gate 3?!" Zhang Yuan was so surprised when he saw the notification email from Steam that he almost choked on his words. Ever since Larian announced that they were taking on Baldur's Gate 3 and produced a trailer/CG for it, Zhang Yuan, who was already a die-hard Baldur's Gate fan, immediately added it to his wishlist.

"Why are you only arriving now?" A low growl escaped as the user clicked on the Baldur's Gate Steam link.

Baldur's Gate needs no introduction as a classic. Upon its release, it caused a sensation in the gaming market. Its rich content, diverse gameplay, impressive character development, vivid character interactions, and dramatic storyline almost redefined RPGs at the time, and its influence continues to this day.

Baldur's Gate is rightfully hailed as the game that saved Western RPGs. Even after all these years, Zhang Yuan still occasionally clicks on that nostalgic avatar icon, controlling the hero Chanemcha as he strolls through the familiar lands of Faerûn.

On one hand, the long-awaited game was finally released; on the other hand, there were doubts about its unknown quality and reputation. Zhang Yuan's heart was filled with unease as he clicked on the Steam store, just like when he received a graded test paper from his teacher back in the day.

After entering the page and glancing at the rating section: Highly Rated! With a huge weight lifted off his shoulders, Zhang displayed the essential qualities of a true fan: heading straight for the target, no, the comments section.

Most of the commenters are probably longtime fans of the Baldur series, and they generally support this sequel.

However, after browsing through it, Zhang Yuan discovered that Baldur's III was still a work in progress, with an unfinished main storyline and numerous bugs. He could understand these issues, after all, it wasn't finished yet, and it wasn't time to draw conclusions. However, the gameplay of Baldur's III still concerned him: turn-based.

Traditional D&D games, such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, are real-time action RPGs that can be paused at any time, essentially a semi-turn-based system. Aside from the equally familiar Heroes of Might and Magic series, the only other turn-based game Zhang has heard of is the renowned but never-before-experienced Legend of Sword and Fairy.

"Please don't let it crash," he thought silently, then looked at the price: 59.99 euros! For an international student, this price was still a bit expensive. Even though he really wanted to support the official version, Lao Zhang still declined the idea of ​​spending a lot of money to be a self-funded tester.

Or maybe we should wait? Perhaps after a while, Gabe Newell will have a change of heart and put a green "fire sale" sign on Baldur's Rumble too? Anyway, the game isn't finished yet, so let's hold off for now and definitely buy it when it's on sale!
Zhang Yuan suppressed the urge to add it to his shopping cart. Closing the Steam interface, with nothing else to do, Zhang Yuan idly moved the mouse across the Windows desktop, its cursor lingering intentionally or unintentionally on the Baldur's Gate 2 icon.

This is actually just a casual story I wrote in my spare time to share with fellow D&D enthusiasts (at least I'm having a blast). I'm not a professional writer, so I apologize for not being able to make any promises about updates. But I won't abandon it! My resolve is firm.

(P.S. The first three chapters are about setting things up and preparing, so you can skip through them and review them if you have any questions.)

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(End of this chapter)