Ludrug's band

Ludrug's band is a small group of gnolls in the northern parts of the Dryad Falls. They claim the place to be their territory and demand tribute from "trespassers". If these are unable to pay with gold, Ludrug, self-acclaimed "champion" and leader of the other three, challenges the best one of the trespassers to a duel.

No journal entry will be added, so this is no regular quest. However, a high amount of experience can be gained by winning the duel.

Walkthrough
Unlike the hostile creatures in most other encounters with gnolls, Ludrug's band is neutral. They stand and hold guard until one of them at coordinates  – Ludrug drops his name only during conversation – sees a party member, at which time he will approach and demand tribute. "Stop! You have trespassed on our territory. You shall not be allowed to leave until you have paid tribute. We demand 50 gold in tribute!"

There are three ways to react to this, with the third one leading to further two possible outcomes.

Baldur's Gate
One way to react to the demands is to threaten or insult Ludrug's band, on which he will respond appropriately. Ludrug then will turn hostile and attack the party – alone! His fellows remain neutral and passive (unless attacked themselves).


 * Reward

The second option is to simply pay the tribute of. Except for loosing gold, nothing else will happen.


 * Reward

Whether true or not, a third option is to state to "have no money". In this case, Ludrug will let the trespassers only go if they win a fight – "[their] best champion versus [his band's] best champion". Again, an insult is possible as reaction, or the party can agree. "Our best champion is Ludrug. Ludrug is me. Are you ready for fight? No matter, we fight now!"

Ludrug then attacks the most powerful party member, while that one autonomously – if not interrupted – attacks the still neutral Ludrug. However, despite the fact that a duel was announced, the other three gnolls turn hostile now and join the fight.

Ludrug himself will initiate dialogue another time, depending on the course of the battle.

If his health – initially thirty hit points – drops below five and he isn't killed with that last strike, he will stop attacking the most powerful party member, who will also halt autonomously, and admit that he has lost. He then will try to get away – leaving his company alone in battling the party. This will yield five hundred points for the sheer experience of the challenge.


 * Reward

If, however, the party's champion is going to loose and gets injured to below five hit points, the duelists both stop fighting for a moment, and the still neutral Ludrug announces that the trespassers now all have to die, due to him having won. He then turns hostile and continues to attack – in this case left alone himself by his friends, who instead will try to escape.


 * Reward

Tales of the Sword Coast
One way to react to the demands is to threaten or insult Ludrug's band, on which he will respond appropriately. Ludrug then will turn hostile and attack the party, as well as his fellows will.


 * Reward

The second option is to simply pay the tribute of. Except for loosing gold, nothing else will happen.


 * Reward

Whether true or not, a third option is to state to "have no money". In this case, Ludrug will let the trespassers only go if they win a fight – "[their] best champion versus [his band's] best champion". Again, an insult is possible as reaction, or the party can agree. "Our best champion is Ludrug. Ludrug is me. Are you ready for fight? No matter, we fight now!"

Ludrug then attacks the most powerful party member, while that one autonomously – if not interrupted – attacks the still neutral Ludrug. The other three gnolls will not intervene and serve as seconds.

Ludrug himself will initiate dialogue another time, depending on the course of the battle.

If his health – initially thirty hit points – drops below five and he isn't killed with that last strike, he will stop attacking the most powerful party member, who will also halt autonomously, and admit that he has lost. The whole gang then will leave. This will yield five hundred points for the sheer experience of the challenge.


 * Reward

If, however, the party's champion is going to loose and gets injured to below five hit points, the duelists both stop fighting for a moment, and the still neutral Ludrug announces that the trespassers now all have to die, due to him having won. He – together with his seconds – then turns hostile and continues to attack, while the others join the fight.


 * Reward

Enhanced Edition
One way to react to the demands is to threaten or insult Ludrug's band, on which he will respond appropriately. Ludrug then will turn hostile and attack the party, as well as his fellows will.


 * Reward

The second option is to simply pay the tribute of, which is only possible if the party indeed has this amount of gold pieces. In addition to loosing these, Ludrug's band will then leave the area.


 * Reward

Whether true or not, a third option is to state to "have no money". In this case, Ludrug will let the trespassers only go if they win a fight – "[their] best champion versus [his band's] best champion". Again, an insult is possible as reaction, or the party can agree. "Our best champion is Ludrug. Ludrug is me. Are you ready for fight? No matter, we fight now!"

The still neutral Ludrug then attacks the most powerful party member, while that one autonomously – if not interrupted – moves towards him, coordinates. The other three gnolls will not intervene and serve as seconds.

What will happen next, depends on the course of the battle and actions taken. If at any point of time during the challenge another party member than the chosen one attacks and damages Ludrug, he and his whole band will turn hostile, ending the "duel".

If Ludrug is hit and damaged by his opponent and if his health – initially thirty hit points – drops below twenty (and he isn't killed with that last strike), he will stop attacking the most powerful party member, who will also halt autonomously, and admit that he has lost. The whole gang then will leave. This will yield five hundred points for the sheer experience of the challenge.


 * Reward

If, however, the party's champion is going to loose and gets injured to below five hit points, the still neutral Ludrug announces that the trespassers now all have to die, due to him having won. He – together with his seconds – then turns hostile and continues to attack, while the others join the fight.


 * Reward

Bugs

 * In the original Baldur's Gate without its expansion installed, if threatening or insulting Ludrug's band,  in the dialogue with him sets the global variable   to 3 – a value that isn't checked by the gnolls' script, so they remain neutral and passive, while he turns hostile. Installing Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast fixes this, as both action and script are changed to set and check the variable value 1.
 * When in the original Baldur's Gate without its expansion Ludrug announces that the party now has to die, while he turns hostile, the also hostile companions of him stop attacking and instead try to escape the area, due to the global variable  being set to 2.  Again, installing Tales of the Sword Coast fixes this by using a variable value of 1.
 * In the original games, there's a discrepancy between Ludrug's health checks: while his script lets him stop the fight only when he's down to five hit points, the threshold in the dialogue is set higher, to twenty hit points. However, the latter isn't regarded. The Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition changes the script to also check for twenty hit points already.